1958 UAP Sighting — AARO Records (D196P41 var 2)
The United States launched Explorer 1, its first satellite, into space on January 31, 1958. Explorer 1 was designed, built, and operated by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and carried a cosmic ray detector.
Background
A UFO/UAP incident extracted from page 41 of AARO Historical Record Report Vol 1 2024, an All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) document published in 2024-2025. The incident is dated January 31, 1958 and located in Unknown location.
What the document records
The United States launched Explorer 1, its first satellite, into space on January 31, 1958. Explorer 1 was designed, built, and operated by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and carried a cosmic ray detector.
Witnesses on file: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Status of the case
The page-level assessment recorded in the document is: no agency assessment. AARO designates unresolved cases as those for which the agency has not concluded the events were anomalous, has not concluded they were conventional, and has not ruled out either possibility. Conventional candidates for sightings of recent periods include drones, classified test platforms, satellite re-entry, balloon traffic, atmospheric optical phenomena, and astronomical objects.