File 123 · 24 October 1968

Minot AFB, North Dakota

Minot AFB, North Dakota, United States

Opened 9/4/2026

Ledger illustration of the file — not a photograph of the object. Ledger illustration of the report. Dakota missile prairie. — Night Ledger illustration of the file

LightsHynek RVradar-visualArchive16 witnesses

Standing

Unidentified

On the public record, and still open. A claim, paper, or film — not a finding that it was ours, and not a finding that it was not.

What was claimed

B-52 crew, ground radar, and missile security all reported a large lighted object. The bomber’s radar and a gunnery camera were involved.

What is on the record

This file is a working record — a report, not a verdict. Official paper, if any, is linked where we have it.

In the early hours, missile maintenance and security teams around Minot reported a brightly lighted object that moved from flight to flight. A B-52 on a training run painted a target on radar and the crew saw a glow. A brief radar-scope camera sequence was taken. SAC and Blue Book opened files.

The Air Force description wandered between plasma, stars, and unidentified. Later researchers reconstructed a timeline in which ground and air reports overlap. A nuclear bomber, a missile field, and a radar film — even a short one — keep this on the shelf.

Could this have been ours?

The known sky, that night.

Satellites were already up. The station was not. Starlink was not.

Always

Venus and the bright planets

A fixed brilliant point. Does not streak. Does not hover over a street then leave. Often the first misread light in a rural report.

Always

Aircraft, balloons, meteors

Landing lights, flares, lanterns, reentries, fireballs. They are on the known sky. They do not close a file by themselves — they are what a serious look has to hold the claim against.

Orbit · Space — the desks for lights that are already named.