Project Blue Book Case #642. On February 24, 1950, a luminous object was observed over Albuquerque, New Mexico — the heart of America's nuclear weapons corridor. This sighting occurred during the peak of the mysterious "green fireball" phenomenon that had alarmed the scientific and military communities since late 1948.
The green fireballs — brilliant green luminous objects that moved silently across the New Mexico sky at low altitude — had been the subject of intense investigation by astronomer Lincoln La Paz, who concluded they were not conventional meteors. The objects appeared predominantly over nuclear facilities: Los Alamos, Sandia, Kirtland AFB, and the surrounding region. Their persistence prompted the Air Force to establish Project Twinkle, a dedicated observation program using tracking cameras positioned at key locations.
The February 1950 Albuquerque sighting fell within Project Twinkle's operational period. The program ultimately failed to capture definitive photographic evidence, largely due to insufficient resources and equipment malfunctions, though its operatives did record several anomalous observations.
Albuquerque's position as the urban center of the nuclear corridor — with Kirtland AFB, Sandia Labs, and Manzano nuclear weapons storage on its outskirts — made any unidentified aerial object a matter of grave security concern. The AEC, FBI, and Air Force intelligence all maintained active interest in reports from this region.
No conventional explanation was found. The case was classified "Unknown."