File 25166 · 2021

Western U.S. 2021 Infrared Objects

Western United States military range, United States · Region, not street

Opened 9/9/2026

Sighting photograph. Image pulled from the public post. — AARO / DVIDS

LightsofficialFrom the netFilmRegion

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.

Official U.S. government infrared — Western United States, 2021

U.S. Department of Defense

Original tape · original language kept

English writing · original voice kept

English of the official 2021 western-U.S. infrared tape. A military-range sensor records small heat sources. AARO later assessed them as commercial aircraft far from the camera — up to 300 nautical miles. The tape is real U.S. government work. The first reading (an incursion) is not the last word on the file.

Infrared sensor video showing three distant thermal dots in formation or separate paths.

What was claimed

Infrared video from a military platform captured three small objects on a U.S. military range that were later correlated with distant commercial aircraft.

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 2021, an infrared sensor recorded footage of three small dot-like objects against the sky over a military range in the western United States. The objects appeared as distinct thermal returns moving across the frame. Analysis by AARO combined the full motion video with commercial flight data and radar tracks from the region, determining with high confidence that the signatures belonged to three separate commercial airliners flying at a great distance from the sensor. The apparent small size and motion were consistent with the extreme range, and no anomalous characteristics were present. The video was presented by AARO Director Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick during a NASA UAP public meeting in 2023 and later released officially.

Could this have been ours?

The known sky, that night.

The station, the trains, and the rest of the known sky were already there. Hold the claim next to them.

1998 —

International Space Station

A bright, steady moving star. A few minutes to cross. No strobe. Occupied since 2000. NASA publishes the pass times. Not unidentified.

2019 —

Starlink trains

A line of equally spaced lights after a launch. The most common string of orbs in current reports. A satellite deployment, not a formation of craft.

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.