NUFORC Sighting 44538

Occurred: 2005-06-23 18:45 Local
Reported: 2005-06-23 20:26 Pacific
Duration: 50 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Houston, TX, USA

Shape: Other

I live in Sharsptown, a residential community located in the southwestern side of Houston, Texas. On Thursday, June 23rd 2005 at approximately 6:45 pm I noticed a very bright object in the southern sky traveling north to northwest at a very high rate of speed.

I normally do not look up at the sky, but a pretty red cardinal caught my attention as it perched on a telephone wire in my backyard. I was wading in the swimming pool at the time and as I watched this bird I noticed a very tiny round or ball shaped object that looked like a typical star in illumination, but not as distinct because it was still daylight.

The object was very tiny to the naked eye—no larger than the head of a shirt pin. Owing to its size, I presumed the object to be flying at a very high altitude—much higher than typical passenger jets that fly at 35,000 feet. The speed of the object I judged to be three to four times faster than passenger jets flying at this altitude. Usually when a passenger jet flies overhead at 35,000 feet or more you can watch them for a couple of minutes before they move out of your visual range. In the first twenty seconds I watched this object I believed it would move out of my visual range in less than one minute. At thirty seconds it changed to a westerly still maintaining its velocity and illumination which did not change. I lost sight of the object after 50 seconds as it faded into the brightness of the sun in the western sky.

I experience a similar even in 1965 when I saw a similar object while living in the City of Orange near Santa Ana in southern California. This event was reported in The Register newspaper. At the time my father, a West Point graduate, was a lead aerospace engineer at North American working on Gemini space vehicle projects for NASA.

I cannot say for certain what I saw over Houston, but as an ex military man I trust my instincts and whatever this objects was—it flew at a speed in excess on MACH I perhaps even MACH II.

Posted 2005-07-05