5.07.2024

June 12, 1958 - 10 miles west of Huntsville, Texas

The source of this information comes from the Blue Book files and Project 1947 list.

The Blue Book file

The Blue Book file contains the following information about the sighting2:

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It was observed by a crew member (apparently the navigator) of a B-52. The plane was located at 91 degrees 45 minutes west and 30 degrees 45 minutes north.

Object was described as being the size of the head of pin, reddish in color, oval-shaped, and about 2nd magnitude.

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The object passed through the field of view of a sextant, while taking readings on the star Kochab (misspelled Kochah) at azi-

muth 343 degrees and elevation 26 degrees and 48 minutes.

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The object went from south to north through the Sextant’s field of view (sextant D-1), which took about two seconds to traverse.

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Time of the sighting was 1026Z on June 12 on the teletype and record card. The typed message indicates a time of 1006Z. This is probably a Typographical error.

Analysis

Blue Book determined this was the rocket, which did not decay from orbit until December 3rd, that had boosted Sputnik 3 into orbit. Both were moving in similar orbits. Jonathan McDowell only had TLEs for Sputnik 3 and they were only from when it was first boosted into orbit.3 That being said, McDowell’s track seems to agree with what Blue Book wrote about the satellite’s location at the time of the sighting (see below). Its track put it west of Kochab from the location of the aircraft. Blue Book computed the track of the rocket body and listed it as traveling in a similar direction but it was passing over eastern Texas 30 minutes prior to the pass of Sputnik 3.

In an effort to get some TLEs for the rocket body, I sent a request into Dr. Kelso’s Celestrak.4 He could provide no data on the rocket body. I then contacted Ted Molczan, who provided me with observations of the rocket body (1958 delta 1) from the moon watch observations for May through June 1958.5

The moon watch observations confirm the rocket body was passing over eastern Texas in a south to north trajectory at the time in question. Many of the observers estimated the magnitude at -1. But these were observations, where the object was well placed. In the case of the observation from the B-52, where the object was heading towards the northern horizon, the object would not have been further away from the observer and probably would have been fainter.

Conclusion

I would classify this as definitely Sputnik 3’s booster rocket. There is enough evidence to support the classification. Blue Book got this right and the sighting needs to be removed from the Weinstein Catalog.

Quelle: SUNlite 3/2024