Presque Isle Area, MaineFebruary 1961

On the evening of February 5, 1961, a bright object streaked across the skies over Maine, Vermont, and Massachusetts, attracting the attention of military personnel, state police, and civilian observers across a wide area. The object was round in shape, roughly the size of a full moon, and glowing bright blue or blue-green. Multiple witnesses reported it traveled toward the northeast and left a bright trail of light behind it. The sighting lasted only a few seconds.

Reports came from Burlington, Vermont; Augusta and Bangor, Maine; and the Presque Isle area. A Military Air Transport Service aircraft flying at 14,093 feet over Presque Isle, heading southwest toward McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey, also reported sighting the object. The witnesses disagreed somewhat on the object's size, describing it variously as the size of a basketball at arm's length, between a nickel and a quarter, or larger than a meteor. Some observers saw color shifts, with one witness reporting that it appeared green turning orange near the horizon. One observer at Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts noted a tail of light trailing from the object.

Military and civilian personnel at several locations were interviewed. A Technical Sergeant at North Concord Air Force Station in Vermont who observed the object said it appeared similar to a meteor and had an exhaust of blue flame. A civilian observer from Lyndonville, Vermont, described watching a round, bright green object fall rapidly from the eastern portion of the sky before apparently exploding. A third observer, a 49-year-old driver, reported the object lit up the upper left corner of his windshield as he drove on the Maine Turnpike. He described it as brilliant pea green and bluish, ten times brighter than a shooting star, with a cone-shaped tail of sparks.

Air Force intelligence officers at Westover Air Force Base concluded that the sightings likely represented a decaying satellite, possibly Discoverer 5. However, the official evaluation recorded on the case's cover form was "unknown." The case record notes that the Air Force recognized the sighting possessed characteristics consistent with a fireball meteor and posed no threat to national security. The full case file, consisting of twenty pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.