Kecksburg Acorn Recovery — Pennsylvania

On the evening of December 9, 1965, a fireball trailing blue smoke was observed across six U.S. states and Ontario, Canada. Ground witnesses near Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, reported a large object falling into the woods and observed a bronze/gold-colored acorn-shaped object approximately the size of a Volkswagen Beetle resting in the woods, with a raised band of writing around its base described as resembling Egyptian hieroglyphics. The U.S. Army arrived within hours, cordoned off the area, and witnesses reported a large object being loaded onto a flatbed truck under military escort. The official response was that a meteorite had been investigated and nothing found. In 2003, NASA historian Leslie Kean filed a Freedom of Information lawsuit seeking the original investigation files. NASA was unable to produce the files and stated the original records had been lost. NASA subsequently re-examined the case using recovered documentation and concluded the object was most likely a Soviet Kosmos 96 space probe, but orbital mechanics experts disputed that the probe's trajectory was consistent with the observed fireball path.