Townsend and the Black Knight

I see that The Professor went fishing in the same archives and landed an even bigger bear.

But first, a little background. The "Black Knight" satellite remains one of the most intriguing  stories of the early years of the space age.  Beginning in 1957, a  mysterious satellite was observed for some long period of time, circling the earth in a then-impossible orbit. It was determined to be neither ours nor the Russians' and, as far as I know, no reasonable explanation for it has yet been found.

In the first of a series of three articles, The Professor makes the case that the object crashed, parts of it entered the Earth's atmosphere in 1960, and Townsend Brown, with high level approval, whisked them away before the Project Blue Book/Air Force folks got a grip on what they were.

I can easily believe that.

Part Two

Part Three

The Black Knight, again.

Speaking of Philip K. Dick and The Adjustment Bureau brings to mind the Black Knight Satellite story, one of my favorite space mysteries from 1960. It was only recently that the NRO launched a comparable satellite into orbit. NRO watchers are having quite a go at deciphering the Mission badges accompanying these recent Delta Heavy launches.  They are superbly cryptic!