The Mystery Satellite of 1954

After Reading Major Donald E Keyhoe's book "Aliens From Space...", I came across an interesting case that I cannot find any sources for: The mystery satellite that was tracked on October 1954. It also sent out radio signals, and was orbiting the Earth. There was an article on Time Magazine that now seems to have disappeared.

I have seen this story referenced twice now and can't remember the other book. This one intrigues me, and doing a search on the word satellite brings up millions of hits. I did find these interesting results of Clyde Tombaugh looking for a smaller satellite orbiting the Earth:

www.time.com...

www.time.com...

If there is anyone out there who has other links to this rather fascinating find, I would appreciate it.

The satellite seemed to disappear as mysteriously as it appeared. There were a few media reports, but nothing was ever found. This case is mentioned in the older ufology books, but seems to have vanished almost completely.

I just found a blog with a mention on mystery satellites:

community-2.webtv.net...

(I searched ATS using the year 1954 along with satellite with no results.)

Thank you for your inputs.

If i remember right, they called it the dark night satelite. Try searching that name also..hope that helps

Its hard to get any real stories out from the 50s with actual evidence...there was a monsterload of disinfo being shoved out almost daily by the government to confuse the people that you really cant trust anything from that time (which was the point).

Good luck in weeding out fact from fiction...the 50s and to an extent, the 60s was a sort of dark ages for UFO stuff.

I'm afraid this won't do you any good, but I also remember reading of this. I was born in 1953, so I read about it years after the fact. I don't have a clue what the source was, and therefore can't supply any citations, but I do remember reading this somewhere.

I recall reading about this issue recently. However, at the time I remember reading it, I was falling asleep, and therefore my memory is not certain. It is possible I was dreaming the issue.... wouldn't that be interesting?

I'll be watching this thread to see if anything turns up.

Good luck with your quest.

Actually; how about sending a Freedom of Information Request to the various government departments that were likely involved in tracking, investigating, reporting this issue.

One of these agencies is likely to turn up something.

You could report your findings here.

Good luck.

[edit on 13-4-2010 by Hullabaloo]

I found this thread..

www.abovetopsecret.com...


is this it?

reply to post by baddmove


That is one of them, but Major Keyhoe talks of one that was tracked circling the Earth in 1954. He was able to read the actual sources, so if it is in his book, he actually read the government file on an unknown that was orbiting.

Thank you for all of your responses. I think this is one of the more important cases out there and will do the FOIA paperwork. I do wish that Major Keyhoe had written more on this case, but he just gives it a paragraph or two.

I will check with his case files too and keep everyone updated on this one.

This just shows there are many great cases out there that are under reported.

reply to post by kidflash2008


Hi kidflash2008,

was the other book you mentioned Disneyland Of The Gods by John Keel?

Here's a passage:

Several million years ago some super-civilization in a distant galaxy launched an unmanned satellite to our solar system. Its purpose was to search for life and, if i t found any, to keep tabs on its development. The satellite is still functioning and circles the earth periodically, presumably sending reports back to its home planet.

This may sound like a crackpot theme form some obscure fringe journal but actually it is a theory that has been put forth by a number of leading scientists after repeated observations of an artificial satellite of unknown origin. The object was first sighted by Dr. Lincoln La Paz of the University of New Mexico i n 1953, four years before the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I. As more reports poured in from observations around the world, the Department of Defense assigned Dr. Clyde W Tombaugh to run a search for the strange "bogey". Dr. Tbmbaugh was the distinguished astronomer who discovered Pluto in 1930.

The results of Dr. Tombaugh's study were never formally leased by the Pentagon. Nothing further was heard about the object until December 1957, when Dr. Luis Corralos of the Communications Ministry in Venezuela photographed it, somewhat to his own astonishment. The first man-made satellite, Sputnik I, had been launched two months earlier and he was taking pictures of Sputnik II as it passed over Caracas.

His photograph revealed a trace of a second, unknown object closely following the Soviet's dog-carrying satellite. Laika, the first earthly animal to enter space, had company!

The Black Knight

While both the United States and the Soviet Union were racing to launch relatively small satellites into orbit in the late 1950s. astronomers and military tracking stations were following the course of something huge. On January 4,1960, scientists discovered two large objects in a polar orbit. To date neither the U.S. nor Russia had achieved a polar orbit. The objects were estimated to weigh a t least fifteen tons. The largest US. satellite a t that time weighed 450 pounds and the largest Soviet satellite 2,925 pounds.

Late in February 1960, the US. Department of Defense formally announced that an unidentified satellite was circling the globe. I t was tracked and studied by several different observatories and the National Space Surveillance Control Center a t New Bedford, Massachusetts. Professor Alla Masevich, the Soviet scientist heading the Russian Sputnik tracking program, flatly denied suggestions that the mystery satellites belonged to the Soviet Union.

The press labeled the intruder "The Black Knight" and it was extensively discussed in the New York limes, Newsweek, Life, other major periodicals.

It vanished as mysteriously as it had arrived. But it has quietly reappeared from time to time ever since and been buried in the fine print of NASA's weekly catalog of debris and objects orbiting the earth.

Apparently there were alot of mystery satellites in the 1950's, I was trying to find information on the "black knight" about a week ago but didn't get very far. Here's yet another Time article about a mystery satellite that was supposedly identified.

www.time.com...


[edit on 13-4-2010 by freelance_zenarchist]

reply to post by freelance_zenarchist


It was not the Black Night as previously mentioned. I will have to check out that one as there are many links to it.

Major Donald Keyhoe was one to not mince words and was very serious about his work. He had copies (if not the original) files of sources and people in high places to give him help and tips.

From what I could tell there was no one "Black Knight" satellite, it was a name applied to a bunch of different satellites and stories. Once source even links the Black Knight to the 1927 LDE signals that were thought to be a starmap of Epsilon Boštes. Researching these mystery satellites and signals became to much of a maze with to many dead ends for me, so I wish you good luck with your searches.

here are a couple of links which pertain to the matter being discussed:

Feb. 11 1960

Ocala Star

1959

"Since August the 16th, an 'ANONYMOUS SATELLITE' has been sighted in Italian skies EVERY NIGHT. It has been spotted from Trieste and other Italian towns the last seven nights. It always appears about 10-12 minutes before the time of the previous night's sighting. It can be seen with the naked eye and looks like a THIRD MAGNITUDE STAR, but the light emitted by such an unknown object is not steady, blinking on and off at regular intervals of about seven seconds. It moves on a Northwest-Southeast, trajectory about 300 MILES ABOVE THE EARTH. AND APPARENTLY LOSING ALTITUDE DAY BY DAY Its passage can be observed with the naked-eye, for just two minutes as it moves along its orbit around the earth at tremendous speed. Such an orbiting object DOES NOT EMIT RADIO SIGNALS. It is not the Sputnik III but could be, perhaps, the third stage of the rocket that launched it."

- Prof. Ettore Martin
Astronomy Observatory
Trieste, Italy
(long article, very interesting read)

Project Argus

1958

... the crew realized that the acquisition of the second object located its position to be far out in space somewhere between the moon and earth. Then they realized that the object appeared to be in a stationary orbit some 80 to 100,000 miles from earth.

Lonesome George

1953

In 1953 rumors began circulating that large, unidentified objects had been detected in high earth orbit. Allegedly these objects, referred to as "moonlets," were in orbits that could not have occurred naturally. The implication was that these unidentified satellites were not natural bodies, but man-made. The only problem was at that time there were no countries with an advanced enough rocket able to put a satellite into orbit. Nevertheless, ground based radar in the United States showed that there were at least ten objects, all around two to five thousand feet in diameter, in high earth

UFO Digest

[edit on 4.13.10 by toreishi]

I believe that two astronomers, associated with the government study of "green fireballs" and UFOs were involved in the search/discovery of the 1954 "moonlets". These astronomers are Tombaugh and Dr. Lincoln La Paz. The discovery of the two satellites is referenced in the Wikipedia article on La Paz.Lincoln La Paz

The two satellites also played a prominent role with the contactees and Wilbert Smith. Several "channellers" claimed to have made contact with "AFFA" who was commander of one of the satellites/spaceships (the other commander allegedly being named "PONNAR" - and yes, for some reason they used all caps).

Grant Cameron has several articles that reference AFFA on his presidentialufo site, including these:
Canadian UFO Director Recieves Letter from Alien
Invite AFFA to Land

I certainly know that any channelled material is likely to contribute to the "giggle factor", but it is an interesting part of the real story of the two satellites that were discovered orbitting earth in 1954.

reply to post by toreishi


Apparently there have been many unknown satellite sightings (and signals heard from) that were recorded in the 1950s. A lot of people were watching the skies, and the Cold War with the USSR created many ham radio people trying to listen in on them

Also, I have found out that the term satellite for space probes was used in the early 1950s. There have been some alleged documents debunked solely on the point of using this term.

reply to post by bluestreak53


There is an article in Time Magazine on Clyde Tombough's search for a small satellite orbiting the Earth. He finally gave up on it in 1958, but there was many who theorized the Earth had many very small moonlets orbiting it.

a reply to: kidflash2008

Alakazam! This thread is back from the dead!

blog.modernmechanix.com...

I stumbled across this researching a thread I'm working on.

Good to see this come back to life, the origin of the Keyhoe story remains mysterious. What were his exact words in the book that's so often cited?

a reply to: JimOberg

Are these the relevant pages?