File 26525 · 2021

Western U.S. infrared, 2021

Western United States, United States · Region, not street

Opened 9/9/2026

Ledger illustration of the file — not a photograph of the object. Frame from the official infrared tape. — Night Ledger illustration of the file

LightsHynek NLofficialArchiveFilmRegion2 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.

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

U.S. government public release (DoD / AARO / DVIDS). AARO later assessed commercial aircraft at range.

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.

What was claimed

Official U.S. government infrared shows unresolved objects over the western United States in 2021.

What is on the record

The clip is among the official UAP videos later placed in the public domain. It is sensor tape, not a recovered craft. AARO and related public files treat similar western-U.S. events as unresolved where they comment at all.

A U.S. government sensor tape later placed in the public domain records infrared objects over the western United States in 2021. The clip circulated with other official UAP imagery. It is not identified as a known aircraft in that public file, and it is not a recovered craft.

Night Ledger hosts an H.264 copy so the tape plays on a phone. The file is the imagery, not a verdict.

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.