Apollo Program UFO Sighting from 1960's Comes to Light
(Washington State MUFON, March 21, 1988.) An interesting UFO report from the 1960's involving the test firing of an Apollo space program booster rocket recently came to light as a result of follow-up to the January 21, 1988 Whidbey Island UFO sighting. Dan MacIndoe of Oak Harbor, Washington received many phone calls from other UFO witnesses as a consequence of reporting his UFO sighting to a local radio station and giving out his phone number. One of them was from Paul J. Allen of Snohomish, Washington, who told him of his encounter with a UFO while working for GE/NASA in the summer of either 1966 or 1967.
A quality control inspector working for General Electric at the NASA Mississippi Test facility at the time, Mr. Allen was at work during the first captive test firing of the second stage, Saturn IV-B rocket. He doesn't recall the exact date but he believes it was probably during the summer of either 1966 or 1967. [The date should be easily obtainable from archived historical records of the Space program.]
At approximately 11:00 p.m. he stepped outside the Data Processing Center building for a smoke and to view the test firing. He noticed a bright light approaching rapidly from the east, which he took to be a light from a plane at first. However, it approached the Test Facility at an unbelievable speed, slowing over the Saturn V-B test stand before continuing on towards the Saturn IV-B test stand, whereupon it stopped and stood over the exhaust blast from the test firing for a minute to a minute and a half. He described the UFO as 200 feet in diameter. It hovered at 3,000-5,000 feet during the stage 2 captive firing, directly over the exhaust blast updraft until the firing ended. Then it approached at about 30 mph, came over the data processing center for about another minute, and left travelling almost straight up.
Mr. Allen states there were 19 people who witnessed the UFO where he stood and another 9 to 11 people on the roof of the Control Facility Building, who had been filming the test firing and also saw it. No pictures of this test firing were ever shown to his group although they were shown film footage of all other firings. They were told that a weather balloon with a flashlight attached had been the cause of the UFO report and that was what they had seen. They were also told that if they discussed the sighting with the public they would lose their jobs.
A complete report of this sighting is being sent to MUFON national headquarters and to CAUS.
UPDATE: The NASA Apollo-Saturn Rocket Test Launch UFO Sighting
(Washington State MUFON, May 31, 1988.) I have some followup information on the UFO report made by Jack Allen, a Boeing engineer who currently lives in Snohomish, Washington. You may recall from my first report that he was employed as a quality control inspector in 1966 by General Electric at the Mississippi Test Facility during a test firing of the second stage of a Apollo-Saturn rocket. At that time he witnessed, along with many others, a UFO approach the test facility and hover over the updraft of the rocket burn during the duration of the test.
First, a correction in the name of the rocket. The rocket that was being test fired at the time of the incident was the second stage of the Saturn V-B rocket, not the Saturn IV-B as had previously been reported. No test firings of the Saturn IV-B occurred at the Mississippi Test Facility. This second stage rocket is correctly referred to as the S-II-T or S-II-1, depending on the version. I talked to Bob Lessels, a Media Affairs officer at Marshall Space Flight Center (205/544-6539) and he provided me with a chronology of possible dates. I also talked to Jack Allen again to verify to the best of his recollection which test firing it was, since it is unlikely now that it was the first one.
A bit of background about the facility itself. The NASA facility in question is located approximately 60 miles East of New Orleans on the Gulf Coast in Hancock County, Mississippi, on the East Pearl River. It has undergone a couple of name changes since 1966. Until very recently it has been known as the National Space Technology Laboratory (NSTL), and its new name is the J.C. Stennis Space Center. The Public Affairs representatives at the facility are Max Herring and Ms. Myran Webb (601/688-3341).
The first captive test firing of the S-II-T occurred on April 23, 1966, according to Bob Lessels. He used as a reference a NASA publication authored by David Akens entitled the "Saturn Illustrated Chronology". Although the time of the firing is not mentioned, a photograph indicates that it was a daytime firing, not a night firing as reported by Jack Allen. The test was successful and lasted 15 seconds.
The next firing was scheduled for May 10, 1966, but was cancelled. On the 11th the engine fired for 47 seconds but there was a premature cutoff. A third captive test firing of the S-II- T occurred on May 17th, and lasted 154 seconds, followed by a fourth test on May 20th which lasted 354.5 seconds. On May 28th the S-II-T was destroyed in an accident during another test firing and a full investigation into the cause ensued. The destruction of the S-II-T caused the Apollo launch schedule to be changed, adding about a month's delay.
On July 5, 1966 there was a successful test Apollo-Saturn 203 launch and the first flight of the S-II stage from California. On August 13th the S-II-1 arrived at the Mississippi Test Facility. On December 30, 1966 at the Mississippi Test Facility the first static firing of the flight version of the S-II-1 was conducted. On January 5, 1967 an 18-member S-II task team was assembled, and Col. Sam Yarchin was assigned the position of team leader. On January 11, 1967 the initial post-static checkout of the S-II-1 ended. Finally, the source mentions that a S-II-3 stage firing occurred on September 19, 1967, but it doesn't say where.
Jack Allen is sure that the test firing occurred at night at approximately 11:00 p.m. He now thinks that, if the first test firing had been during daylight, the UFO incident must have occurred during the second test firing. This would place the occurrence of the event as May 11th, 1966, during the premature cutoff of the test. This still needs to be further confirmed by obtaining the exact time of the testing.
--Donald A. Johnson, Ph.D.
