NUFORC Sighting 77038

Occurred: 1989-11-10 23:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2010-08-07 07:35 Pacific
Duration: 10 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Phoenix, AZ, USA

Shape: Light

Very High star-like dot of light, high speed, crossing sky, then abruptly 'shot' into space, faded out.

These two events occurred in 1989 and 1995 respectfully (approximate) in Phoenix AZ. I lived North of the city, pretty dark in those days.

The first: Facing South, a white, star-like solid light, like a medium size star, appeared in the sky very, very high up, at an almost-directly-overhead latitude and crossing the sky coming out of the East to West. I immediately thought it was a satellite. Way too high to be an airplane. It was either already in space or just on the fringe. And faster than a satellite I was use to seeing.

But just as I told the person I was with to "look, it's a satellite", the object stopped crossing the sky half way, almost directly overhead, and literally stopped on a dime, and then went straight up into space, fading out. It didn't continue across the sky like a satellite would and then instantly 'blink' out when it went into earth's shadow. This object went straight up. A 90-degree instant 'turn' up into space. I verified this in my mind by acknowledging that it did not 'cross' any more stars in any direction.

I'm a private pilot, university graduate and voluminous readings, I know of nothing that would act like this, particularly that it was so high to start with, traverse half the sky, and then abruptly stop and go into space and fade out, not suddenly blink out.

Now here's the kicker: about six years later, my wife and I were standing in my backyard, same house, facing North this time, looking up towards the horizon, not straight up. I had told her my UFO story.

Suddenly, There...I instantly knew it was the same 'object', probably because it’s so different then my ‘normal’.

It suddenly appeared coming at us, from North to South this time, crossing the sky towards us at a very fast speed. Both were traveling much faster then the satellites I've seen crossing the sky. So, from first sighting it near the horizon to it going up into space took about seven seconds and then another two/three seconds as it faded out) Without taking my eyes off of it this time, I told my wife, "see the light coming at us?" Watch...it’s going to come almost overhead, stop, and then go straight up into space and fade out! And it did just that as I was describing what it would do to her!! Again, never went 'by' any more starts verifying that it did indeed go 'straight up' into space.

And now I have a witness who's always with me (married). so now it's 'we' who saw it! Ran across your article in the SOCO Magazine here in Boston MA and thought I'd send you this 'tale'. I've seen rockets launched in the Air Force (I worked on Minuteman Missiles), saw the shuttle launch in Fla., a missile 'blowup' just after launch in New Mexico (from our backyard in Phx) leaving the colorful contrails from the rising morning sun, we've seen satellites, the shuttle, the space station (as I acknowledged, they cross the 'entire' sky then suddenly blink out when they go into the earth's shadow) but I’ve never seen anything this high in the sky, just a 'bright' dot of a light, that initially looked like a satellite but traveling much faster, stop on 'a dime', and go straight up into space and just fade out.

Any ideas as to what these/this could have been?

NUFORC Note:

Witness indicates that the date of the sighting is approximate. PD

Posted 2010-08-24