Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency teletyped information report, distributed 11 December 1958 and covering USSR/India, describes a source's telescope sighting on 6 December 1958. While observing Mars, the source saw an artificial object of magnitude 3 cross the field of vision from north to south, with no smoke, flame, noise or fall, and believed it was Sputnik III. A headquarters comment says Sputnik III was not visible from the source's area at that time, and it asks Air and OSI for an evaluation.
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# CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY TELETYPED INFORMATION REPORT DISTRIBUTION CONTROL TDCS -3/380,949 DATE DISTR. 11 December 1958 COUNTRY USSR/India ROUTINE DVLACY Unidentific Object Observed in the Sky DATE OF INFORMATION 6 December 1550 APPROVAL OF CONTENT (INTENTATIVE) On 6 December 1958 between 1838 and 1840 local time source observed, by telescope, an artificial object having a continuous brightness of magnitude 3 (came as the Belt of Orion) cross his position [field of vision] while source was observing Mars. The object traveled north to south. There was no sign of disintegration, smoke, flame, or noise. There was no sign of any fall. Source did not photograph the object, but he is sure that the object was identical with Sputnik III. Subsequent observations proved negative. Headquarters Comment: A preliminary check showed that Sputnik III was not within source's area of visibility at the time indicated, nor is the direction cited in agreement with computed orbits. The carrier rocket for Sputnik III reentered the earth's atmosphere on 3 December 1958 according to a Soviet announcement. Headquarters Comment: Evaluation requested of Air and OSI Field Dissedration: None End of Message
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 3 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.