Possible reentry over Texas

Allen Thomson (thomsona@netcom.com)
Sun, 26 Jan 1997 19:35:56 -0800 

   This from one of the semi-UFO groups.  People following 
reentries might like to see if the object can be associated with 
any known decays.  Otherwise, I suppose we'll have to ascribe it 
to aliens.  ;) 

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   SEGUIN, Texas (AP) _ Military officials have taken possession 
of a metal sphere that was found in the middle of a South Texas 
field, a Guadalupe County sheriff's deputy said. 
   Deputy Todd Friesenhahn said Friday night that officials from 
Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio confiscated the object, 
which is about 2 feet in diameter, scorched and pitted on 
one side and with what appeared to be the remains of a valve. 
   Rancher Ed Longcope told authorities Friday he was feeding 
his cattle when he noticed the sphere half way imbedded in the 
middle of his field in Kingsbury, an incident report said. 
   Deputies took the object to the National Weather Service 
office in New Braunfels, but officials there were unable to 
identify it and said to contact NASA. 
   Officials at the U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs, 
Colo. - the agency that tracks objects in orbit - are curious 
about the sphere, said Commander David Knox. 
   "We really don't know what it is," he said. "We're interested 
in knowing what it is, but we don't know what it is." 
   Some have speculated that the object may be connected to 
reports of a bright streak of light early Wednesday that 
officials believe was a Delta II rocket body re-entering the 
atmosphere and burning up, Knox said. 
   However, weather service employees told Guadalupe County 
deputies that a co-worker saw what she thought might have been a 
meteor fall to earth in the general area of Longcope's field 
around 6:30 a.m. on Jan. 15, Friesenhahn said. 
   The worker, Norma Jones, said she noticed what she first 
believed was a plane in trouble when she was on her way to work. 
   "As I was looking and driving, it looked like a ball of fire, 
but the colors were bright blue and yellow," she said. "It was 
at eye level. I didn't see it hit the ground. It looked like it 
disintegrated. I thought it had landed in one of the corn 
fields." 
   APTV-01-24-97 2153CST