Palmdale, California UFO Sighting (April 12, 1981) — AARO Records (D213P43 var 2)
A modern wave case from Palmdale, California. The first Space Shuttle launch, Columbia, occurred on April 12, 1981.
Background
On April 12, 1981, in Palmdale, California, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) recorded the unidentified-phenomenon case described below. The case is preserved in AARO’s 2024-2025 publications and consolidated annual reports to Congress, declassified or released in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and Department of Defense reporting cycles.
A sighting from the modern era of post-blue-book civilian and military reports.
The case appears in materials produced or curated by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office.
What the document records
The first Space Shuttle launch, Columbia, occurred on April 12, 1981. The Space Shuttle program was NASA’s fourth human spaceflight program and utilized reusable spacecraft. The fleet included Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour, and flew 135 missions.
Type of case
The case is a visual sighting reported by ground or air observers.
Status
AARO designates unresolved cases as those for which the agency has not concluded the events were anomalous, has not concluded that they were conventional, and has not ruled out either possibility. Conventional candidates for sightings of recent periods include commercial drones, classified test platforms, satellite re-entry, balloon traffic, atmospheric optical phenomena, and astronomical objects.