Restricted Airspace

1948–1950. 209 reports of green orbs, discs and fireballs near Sandia Base, in files kept by the Manhattan Project’s postwar successor, with investigations into copper powder found where some were seen.

1949. Manhattan Project veterans meet at Los Alamos over months of “green fireballs” near the lab. Edward Teller floats an “electron phenomenon”; meteor expert Lincoln LaPaz says nothing like it had been seen in meteorite falls.

1952. Briefing on the Air Force’s reorganized UFO investigation, Captain Edward J. Ruppelt says reports concentrate around Los Alamos, Albuquerque and Oak Ridge, with radar speeds of 1,000–3,500 mph.

1973. A CIA report on the Soviet Union’s Sary Shagan weapons range lists its missile systems, rumored laser research, and unidentified aerial phenomena observed at the site.

2015. Enhanced imagery from a ground surveillance radar tower at the Pantex Plant, where the U.S. assembles and maintains its nuclear weapons.

September 1, 2015. The report on an unidentified object in the airspace over Pantex, less redacted than its first release.

September 2023. Corroborating witnesses describe a bronze, metallic ellipsoid 130–195 ft long emerging from a bright light and vanishing instantly.

October 2023. Seven federal employees near a sensitive national security site report orbs launching other orbs and a “translucent kite.” AARO counts it among the most compelling cases it holds.

AARO’s analysis of the same two days near the site. As of June 2026, the case remains unresolved.

FBI rendering of a federal agent’s account from the Western US Event. An interpretation, not a photograph.

FBI digital recreation, in motion, of another agent’s account from the same event.

Late 2025. A serving senior intelligence official, investigating noises and sightings at a sensitive military facility, describes orbs at close range and a low, fast object that split in two.

An FBI interview with a senior intelligence official about a military facility: a “super-hot” orb hovering over the ground that outran a pursuing helicopter over 20 miles.