Project Blue Book case review: January-June 1960

This is the latest edition of the Project Blue Book case review covering July through December of 1959. Like the previous evaluations, I tried to examine each case to see if the conclusion had merit. I added comments to help clarify the explanation or if I felt it was not correct or adequate. 

Summary

The cases during this time period, while minimal in number, still contained some interesting events. Space activity appears to have been the source of quite a few sightings. A Russian missile launch into the pacific near Hawaii produced a pair of sightings. Many of the sightings in the Caribbean were sightings of missile tests from Cape Canaveral.

I think the film shot at Champaign, Illinois was the most interesting report. It was a film shot of a statue with the sun behind it. Suddenly an object transits the frame for about a second. It is quick and disappears rapidly. I consider it interesting because it has all the characteristics of a fireball seen in daylight. This is not unheard of but is rare and to capture one on film is quite the prize. I saw no reason to draw a conclusion other than a daylight meteor unless others have better information or a higher quality video that says otherwise. 

Another interesting case was in St. Louis, Missouri on March 24, 1960. It had all of the characteristics of a bright meteor except the conditions were listed as overcast. About the same time of this sighting, aircraft over Terre Haute reported a meteor like object “falling” out of the sky. They are probably the same meteor and the St. Louis observers probably saw the object through broken/thin clouds. I have seen fireballs illuminate the clouds like this before so it is possible. 

Lastly, there was another one of those possible moon sightings on May 28 from Penns Park, Pennsylvania. Blue book listed it as a reflection but the moon appears to be a better fit considering the light was in the west and the moon was setting in that direction a short time after the sighting. 

One thing that has been consistent in my examination of all of these files, is that Blue Book continued to have problems gathering all of the pertinent data for each sighting. It is no wonder that so many were listed as “insufficient data”. If one couples this with the fact that people misperceived objects, like the moon, as UFOs, we have to wonder about those cases that were given the lofty classification of “UNIDENTIFIED”. 

Quelle: SUNlite 4/2020