NUFORC Sighting 80838

Occurred: 1961-06-30 22:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2011-04-11 13:40 Pacific
Duration: 25 to 30 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Rotan, TX, USA

Shape: Orb
Characteristics: Lights on object

large, beeping orb with lighted spires

I do not remember the exact year or month. I was a young girl and the word UFO, nor the idea of UFOs, was not in vocabulary.

It was summer, the windows were open for ventilation and it was later than 10 PM at night.

I couldn’t sleep because of the heat, so I moved to the foot of the bed and lay with my head and shoulders in the window. Our house was stucco, with a flat roof. There were no street lights in our town at that time. I had checked out the neighborhood, listened to the sounds and was cooling off. I heard a soft beep, beep, beep, with the beeps separated by 2 or 3 seconds. I couldn’t find the source of the sound. It was new to me. There were no vehicles, at that time, with back-up beepers.

I rolled around inside the window trying to locate the sound and had finally settled on my back, watching the stars in a dark sky. There was no moon that night.

From the corner of my right eye, to the east of the house, I saw something move. The beeping sound was right on top of me. I turned my head and saw a very large silver sphere. The sphere had spires at equal distances, all over the area I could see, perhaps 10 to 12 spires. Lights were on the ends of every spire. Some were blue, some white, some red. The beep and white lights seemed to pulse in unison. None of the red or blue lights went out when the white ones pulsed brighter and dimmer.

I think I was in about the 5th grade, because I knew about the Russian satellite being launched and that the United States was about to/or had just launched our own. I remember thinking, "Oh, that’s what a satellite looks like." I didn’t know that a large round ‘thing’ couldn’t fly, telephone pole high, with no motor sounds, no landing gear and no noticeable speed.

I rolled over and watched it go out of sight, over the lights of Roby, ten miles away. I could hear the beeping sound for about 30 minutes, from start to finish.

I have always wondered what it was, but only told friends about it 6 years later. I wasn’t worried about it, just assumed that it was a satellite.

Are you able to tell me what it was?

Thanks, ((name deleted))
Rotan, TX

NUFORC Note:

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

Posted 2011-05-02