What was the Kecksburg UFO?

[JannTosh]

there is no doubt somethigng crashed in Kecksburg in 1965. The question is what is it?


Was it a meteor?


An alien spacecraft?


Kosmos 96? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosmos_96

The secret Nazi experiment Die Glocke? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Gl...spiracy_theory)


Some other satellite?

Hell some theorize that it was a fragment of a meteor, nothing was taken, and the residents of Kecksburg created this elaborate story to bring attention to their small town.

[XCalibur]

Originally Posted by JannTosh

there is no doubt somethigng crashed in Kecksburg in 1965. The question is what is it?


Was it a meteor?


An alien spacecraft?


Kosmos 96? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosmos_96

The secret Nazi experiment Die Glocke? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Gl...spiracy_theory)


Some other satellite?

Hell some theorize that it was a fragment of a meteor, nothing was taken, and the residents of Kecksburg created this elaborate story to bring attention to their small town.

More likely it was a military craft of some kind. The military took control of the situation to easily and efficiently for it to have been extraterrestrial or anything else.

[schmave]

Agree with XCalibur.
No way a meteor took that controlled path from Canada, over Michigan, Ohio and Pittsburgh and into that ravine.
I've always meant to ask my dad if he refers this happening. He grew up in Columbus, well southwest of this thing's path, but it crashed in Kecksburg on his 16th birthday.

[MediaHoarder]

I've always been of the opinion that it was a satellite re-entry of some kind, probably Soviet. The only "debunking" of this has always relied on data provided by the government, so it hardly constitutes proof.

[EighthStreet]

Originally Posted by schmave

Agree with XCalibur.
No way a meteor took that controlled path from Canada, over Michigan, Ohio and Pittsburgh and into that ravine.
I've always meant to ask my dad if he refers this happening. He grew up in Columbus, well southwest of this thing's path, but it crashed in Kecksburg on his 16th birthday.

"Controlled path" is a major exaggeration, just because it was seen in different places doesn't mean it took a 90 degree turn along it's path. Observers probably misreported the direction they saw it traveling.

Meteors being visible for a wide swath of area is pretty common, this is just from this past month: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/massive...-canada-video/
"The dazzling display was reported by more than 200 observers on the ground in 11 U.S. states and Ontario"

[schmave]

And those observations from the segment and beyond are all I have to go on, considering it happened 12 years before I was born. "Major exaggeration" is a major exaggeration.

[EighthStreet]

Originally Posted by schmave

And those observations from the segment and beyond are all I have to go on, considering it happened 12 years before I was born. "Major exaggeration" is a major exaggeration.

"major exaggeration" of the segment itself

[zack007attack]

I think it was a space capsule of some kind, either Soviet or Chinese owned.

The coverup on our government's behalf does have some rationale behind it. It could be they did not want whichever foreign entity it came from to know that the device had been recovered and was being examined for technological analysis. For all we know it could have been a top-secret spy device that was more advanced than whatever we had produced domestically at the time, or worse it could have been capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

Another reason is that they did not want the public to be engulfed in widespread panic. Especially if my aforementioned theory about carrying a nuke is possible, the fear and hysteria that resulted from full disclosure by the government would have caused great chaos, possibly even calls for war.

[Sgt. Saunders]

Another theory is that the object that crashed in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania was a US military satellite that was specifically designed to destroy Soviet communication satellites in the event that the Cold War heated up dramatically in 1965.

Supposedly, senior military and scientific advisors met with President Lyndon Johnson at his ranch in Texas to discuss this incident with him on the next after the alleged crash event in Kecksburg.

[Arnold_OldSchool]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/60...ia/vi-AA1ROD9F

[Labonte18]

Originally Posted by zack007attack

I think it was a space capsule of some kind, either Soviet or Chinese owned.

The coverup on our government's behalf does have some rationale behind it. It could be they did not want whichever foreign entity it came from to know that the device had been recovered and was being examined for technological analysis. For all we know it could have been a top-secret spy device that was more advanced than whatever we had produced domestically at the time, or worse it could have been capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

Another reason is that they did not want the public to be engulfed in widespread panic. Especially if my aforementioned theory about carrying a nuke is possible, the fear and hysteria that resulted from full disclosure by the government would have caused great chaos, possibly even calls for war.

Fairly certain China wasn't launching satellites in the 60's. It was fairly limited to the US and USSR.

ESA didn't exist in '65.. and its precursor, ESRO didn't launch its first satellite until '68.

And.. Indeed.. China's first satellite was 1970. Which actually surprises me a bit. Remember, China was pretty.. backwards until the mid 70's, that's when things started turning around. They've made remarkable progress. Almost at the speed the US and USSR did back in the 50's and 60's, and possibly exceeding it. Though.. Much of what they've done is stealing other countries' tech vs creating it on their own.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...tes_by_country

The US military would be VERY interested to get their hands on a Soviet satellite at that time, regardless of what it was, whether it was a spy satellite or a weather satellite. The other countries who were launching were all US allies, so.. Probably not so much.. Unless the satellite had something special about it.. Such as a radioactive power source, or as you mentioned, some other form of radioactivity.. Which would be quite unusual for something in Earth orbit.. Or.. Even a US satellite with Top Secret capabilities. They would want to recover that at all costs.

I doubt the radioactive angle, simply because.. I think there'd have been an even bigger response..

I do agree.. It was likely a satellite of some form, the details.. I don't know.