Balloon related UFO sightings

Balloon related UFO incidents

A detailed history of the balloon-ufo connection in the last 50 years

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¿Stratospheric balloons and UFOs?

Although the development of this project is oriented clearly to document a techno-scientific activity, it has an indirect connection with a topic far from there: the so called "UFO Phenomena". The stratospheric balloons are by nature great deceivers and often create big UFO sighting to the common of the people, so we decided as part of the scope of this website to document also this side consequence of the scientific ballooning.

Throughout these pages the reader will be able to appreciate how in the last 50 years, these vehicles have deceived million of people, many of which never knew, or worse even, never accepted the true origin of its experiences.

This work does nor try to resolve the "UFO phenomena" as a whole, but merely to reference in a well docummented manner those events susceptible to be assimilable in its origin to the passage of a balloon of any kind.

Bellow you will find a table that contains, in chronological order, a relation of those cases in wich the evidence indicates a balloon related origin. At the moment, the information published is only a very small part of the Ufological heritage of the Scientific Ballooning. As the project advances, we hope to incroporate new information.

The UFO that was not

20 years ago, in the morning of September 17th, 1985, Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentine was shocked by the presence of a bright "UFO" in the sky. Then and now a lot of investigators concluded that the object was "not terrestrial", but now ,StratoCat presents an investigation that will contribute to the final elucidation of the case. In this work, all the details of the sighting are exposed as well as all the ambiguities, myths and false interpretations and with the help of a rational and objective perspective and a well documented evidence finally arrived at the conclusion that it was a French stratospheric balloon and not a UFO which appeared that morning over the city.

The text of the dossier is mainly in Spanish. Nevertheless, at the beginning of each page there is a link that allows to obtain a basic translation of the text to the english language.

Country and date	City or region	Details of the sighting and explanation
18/5/2005	Alamogordo, Roswell and Santa Rosa (NM), El Paso (TX)	A very bright object seen from several cities of New Mexico and Texas	Stratospheric balloon launched from Fort Sumner (NM) the same day See report
11/3/2004	San Pedro, La Esperanza and La Mendieta, all towns of the southwest of Jujuy Province (located near the Capricorn Tropic). Also in the Quebrada de Humahuaca and Tilcara.	A glowing luminous object that hovered 20 minutes with slow motion. Appeared as very bright "ball of fire".	MIR french stratospheric balloon, launched on march 10th, from Instituto de Pesquisas Meteorológicas in Baurú, Brazil See report
28/9/2003	Pecos, Taos, Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Las Vegas in the New Mexico State	Glowing white blueish object larger than a star suspended in the afternoon sky. At sunset turned orange and then dissapeared.	Stratospheric balloon launched the same morning fron Ft. Sumner (New Mexico) See report
22/4/2002	In Escaldes Engordany (Andorra) and several cities of southern France: Toulouse, Cahors, Saint Estève and Auterive.	Near 20:00 local time hundred of people sighted a very bright object in the sky, motionless and apparently located over french territory. It was filmated and photographed. Also was reported in press and TV.	Stratospheric balloon launched from the Aire Sur L'Adour base in southwest France. See report
26/3/2001	Tolata, Cochabamba, El Alto and La Paz	Bright metallic object hovering at great height. Was filmed by TV and photographed. The air force sent a T-33 plane to try to identify it but failed.	Identified as a french MIR stratospheric balloon, launched from Bauru, on febraury 15th See report
21/3/2001	Araraquara, Altinópolis, Mococa, Assis and Marilia, in Sao Paulo State	People saw a metallic like object traveling slowly in east direction.	Identified as a french MIR stratospheric balloon, launched from Bauru, on febraury 15th See report
22/11/2000	In the ocean, near the north coast of Chile	Crew and passengers of a ship sailing on Pacific Ocean observed during several hours a metallic and bright object very high in the sky. One passenger managed to obtain film of it.	Identified as a french MIR stratospheric balloon, launched from Bauru, on febraury 19th See report
25/9/2000	Albuquerque, New Mexico	Hundreds of citizens of New Mexico where deceived by a stratospheric balloon launched from Ft. Sumner.	Stratospheric balloon launched fron Ft. Sumner (New Mexico) See report
20/8/1995	Several cities of Sicily	Various reports of sightings of a brilliant object moving slowly over various citys of Sicily. It was a stratospheric balloon launched the same day from Trapani, Sicily	A stratospheric balloon launched from Trapani (Sicily) the same day. See report
10/8/1989	Chipiona (Cadiz) and Estepona (Malaga)	At dusk on August 10, 1989, from the cities of Chipiona (Cadiz) and Estepona (Malaga) was clearly visible the presence in the sky of an shining object. Many thought that it was a UFO, but even though before disappearing the object seemed to divide itself	Stratospheric balloon launched from Sicily (Italy) See report
??/11/1988	Pretoria	Rounded and silver objects wandering in the sky.	A MIR stratospheric balloon launched from Pretoria (Southafrica) See report
17/9/1985	Buenos Aires, cities and towns of the neighborhood, Junín, La Plata and others places in Cordoba and Santa Fe provinces.	The infamous "17th UFO", sighted by millions of people in Argentine's capital city. The research of this case lead to StratoCat's creation.	A MIR stratospheric balloon launched from Pretoria (Southafrica) See report
??/7/1985	Near the city of Tamworth	A truck criver called a radio station about a very bright star in the sky wich was pursuing him.	A MIR stratospheric balloon launched from Pretoria (Southafrica) See report
9/6/1973	La Coruña, Lugo and El Ferrol, in the northwest of the country	Hundred of people sighted a bright object in the noon sky on June 9. The same object aparently was visible in the same zone during June 10.	The detailed report of a scientist from La Coruña observatory made carefully visual measurements and calculations and confirmed that the UFO really was a stratospheric balloon. See report
11/11/1953	London	White and rounded object seen the sky by thousands of citizens of the city. Great media coverage.	Stratospheric balloon of the "Moby Dick" program launched six days before from Holloman Air Base, New Mexico, USA. See report
7/1/1948	Maysville and several nearby cities, in Kentucky state	Glowing object traveling low speed high in the sky. Five P 51 Mustabg were sent to try to identify it. In the chase the Capt. Thomas Mantell lost his life after his plane crashed due to the lack of oxigen.	Stratospheric balloon known as "Skyhook" launched from Camp Ripley, Minnesota, USA, the day before. See report

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