Marion, IndianaOctober 1960

Unidentified

Summary

On an October evening in Marion, Indiana, a witness observed an unusual object in the night sky. According to the Air Force record card, the object appeared as a green flame with the spectrum color of burning copper. The witness reported that the object descended at roughly 10 degrees below the horizon line and disappeared, having burned out before reaching the ground.

The sighting was brief. The duration is not clearly specified in the OCR'd portions of the file, though one section notes that "the duration of sighting is rather short for reentering man-made objects." Weather conditions at the time are not fully legible in the provided text.

The Air Force's analysis considered several possibilities. The file notes that 53 objects of Russian origin were known to be in the vicinity at that time, and investigators examined whether the sighting could have been one of these reentering spacecraft. However, the short duration made that explanation unlikely. The Air Force investigators ultimately concluded that the object was "probably a fireball entering" the atmosphere, based on its green color, flame-like appearance, and the manner in which it burned out and disappeared.

The full case file, consisting of 10 pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.

Reported location

Marion, Indiana

Date of incident

October 1960

State / country

IN / US

Page count

10 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 40

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 10

View transcribed text

: SEG Bs Fg Pa EAE PAR
| pr PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD
[todo ae eninge ea tba tee Cl Abeta nba Stet A Sa
| 1. DATE 2. LOCATION 112. CONCLUSIONS
z ) EIA ro Sl in 0 Was Dolloon
i TN | yc BY AR 0 Probobly Bollson
ee eee eee} Possibly Balloon
3. DATETIME CR0LP | 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION : edad ph Ad
: wy A "
Local LEVY SEER Sa | 1) Ground-Visuadl 0 Ground-Rodar 0 hod Aiveraft ’
A ’ 0 Probably Airzenly
AL A | : ! : wi pata lnatt
GRE: capltvVod oc a AieVYisuad 0 Air-Intarcapt Rador 0 Fossibly Airerolt
Ep pa WERT 7,7 FD) TR RSE cm SO G3 es POG
3. PHOTOS | 8. SOURCE 3 Was Astronomisal
CO Yas IX Prob bly Astronomico! Loor
YI Na Civilian OU Possibly Astronomizol
7. LENGTH OF 0835ERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS 9. COURSE Co Ball] 1) ON Oa 0 EA Wet ae aO TY
| 0 Insutficient Dota for Evaluation
~ i | one descending 0 Unknown
C | >
19. PRIZE SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 1. COMMENTS
yreen flame, spectrum color of burning copper. | There were 53 Jects of Russian origin
1 /2 +ha —— —— be Al? at av A Aa mAarm A » sex vail Thien ly wa > fe va ory Le $a 2 ™ Cay ~~ f -
L/ y CIE azarae alae el  ® J} Lil i de ADL Chg le willCill L'€CliLeI L evaile 111 oe OX VieU
Yd vm hevwioAans dicannaare’d 10° fro; horizon wank Aad 1337 Ys IT OA 4 3 111 A 3 i
) {rom aorizon; disappeared lV 1rom norizon.| exact aacve un«dilown. Unjgect could pPoOssSLbl
Buarnad out. have been one of these obj2ets; however, |
duration of sighting is rather short for
: reentering man-made objects. Object was
| y ra vrohably apn Piraball antarine
PX 3,01) reen all X ‘NZ
ry oe L = ) :
ha 1a g osnhars saaking 13n
162 Navy] ¢ yspiere, DX S10 snd
Fraverd nen ye Yves ve Rt ee WL . 2 |
rning out b re reaching the ground
5 5 ’ |
ATIC FORM 329% ‘RPV 25 SEP 52)
.

/ 10

Use ← → keys to navigate · scans hosted by the U.S. National Archives

Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28989550