Youth Spots Large Yellow Light on Day That First Russian Satellite Launched

Date of Sighting: October 4, 1957
Time of Sighting: 8 PM
Date Reported: March 29, 2005
Location of Sighting: About 13 Miles SE of London, England
Number of Witnesses: One
Latitude: 51.350717 Degrees N (Estimated)
Longitude: 0.16033 Degrees E (Estimated)
Weather: Partly Cloudy

Description (In Witness's Own Words): My name is JW. I am an Englishman without any criminal record, not even a parking ticket. My story relates to what happened on the night of my late mother's birthday on October 4th 1957, when we lived between Chislehurst and Orpington in the South Eastern part of England, about 13 miles from London. In October the evenings get dark earlier so that by six in the evening there is darkness. As I was ten at the time, I went to bed about 8 pm. Before getting my head down and with the curtains drawn open I noticed this round circle of orange light in the sky. It looked like a small "Sun". Our house was on the lower side of a slope about 110 yards upsides a railway line that ran from Saint Mary Cray Station towards Bickley, then Bromley only about six miles away, but Bromley is a large town. There were trees at the top of the incline we lived at the bottom of, some 300 yards away and the branches of these trees obscured some of the light that resembled the Sun. I sat on my bed for about twenty minutes or so, but even at that age I thought that loads of other people must have seen it as well. My Dad came home then and I said he must come up and see this object. When he got up to my room the object had gone. He thought I had been dreaming. The next morning it was announced that the Russians had launched Sputnik 1.I know the Sputnik did not look anything like the Sun, but my mum and dad believed I had seen something. The amazing other thing is that about twenty years later a chap called Stewart or Stuart Coleman was a D.J. on a B.B.C. London Radio show and he interviewed Little Richard the Rock and Roll singer. He said that while he was in Australia, the day the Sputnik was launched in October 1957,he said he saw an Orange light in the sky and took it to be a message from God. Thus Little Richard stood on Sydney Harbor Bridge and threw all of his rings, necklaces, watches, etc., over the side of the bridge and took up the word of the Lord. I know that he was at the other end of the world at the time, but I know what I saw and I am sure he knows what he saw. I swear this is true.

Investigator's Notes: This report has just been received. It is noteworthy that the large "sun-like" object was sighted on the same day that the Earth's first artificial satellite (Sputnik) was launched.  It is also noteworthy that Little Richard (American Rock N' Roll star) also sighted a similar looking object on the same day, but on the other side of world (Australia). Sputnik was visible, but was very small and not easy to spot. Therefore I doubt if the object that the witness sighted was Sputnik. The witness was only 10 years old at the time of the sighting. The witness has responded to my follow-up questions.  A possibility exists that the witness had mistaken the moon for an unknown object. I have investigated moon charts for England for Oct. 4, 1957 and found that the moon would have been visible at the time of the sighting (8 pm) and was 83% illuminated.  The witness described the object as "sunlike".  This could be the moon given that it was 83% illuminated at the time. Given that the witness said that he couldn't see stars the moon could have passed behind a cloud resulting in a rapid disappearance.  The witness says that the object was not the moon when I posed the question to him. A search of Project Blue Book files and other UFO databases did not reveal any other sightings at that time in England.

Bottom Line: Based on astronomical data I feel that the witness could have mistaken the moon for the object.  However, I can't say this with a high degree of certainty.