Who Goes There? 1957

Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite, launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the USSR on 4 October 1957.   It was aloft for only a couple of months. It operated by batteries that ran down within three weeks, its circuit of the globe was monitored by amateur radio operators the world over.  It burned up on re-entry in 1958 after its orbit decayed (4 Jan).  The military were concerned and in October they established a preparedness program; USAF Strategic Air Command began Ground Alert Operations on October 1, 1957. With that they would maintain approximately one-third of its aircraft on ground alert, with weapons loaded and crews standing by for immediate take-off.  

Sputnik 2 would go into orbit Nov. 1 (some sources say Nov.3) with a living being aboard; the pup had a one-way ticket and seven days of air. 

Oddly, 1957 has a great number of reports in Project Blue Book (957). Some scientists had forecast that the number of sightings would increase - their reasons varied but seemed to be accurate. Oddly, because few actually refer to orbiting satellites. Many seem to imply something else was being seen, heard, and felt.  1957 was a year marked by an official encouragement by scientists to go outside in the National Geophysical Year and take part in "OPERATION MOONWATCH". (see Close Encounters & 1957 (nicap.org).  People just that - to the consternation of Project Blue Book and others -  went outside and did just that , they looked up.

In 1956, Mars had a close Earth approach and many scientists and people held a theory that sightings increased during these close times. So, maybe the belief expressed by some scientists and military that 1957 would see more sightings was based on something solid. It has been noticed that the "flaps" actually are part of a three year cycle: 1 year build  up, one peak year, and one year decrease.  The "flap" of 1952 reveals this, as does the 1957, and 1965 "flaps".  In the Project Blue Book files,  however, the largest number of cases comes from 1957, possibly due to the "Operation Moonwatch."

This article and study has some fascinating thing to say about the "Southwestern UFO Flap of 1957" and , although, the author accepts the explanations provided instead of digging deeper into the cases to see if any conflicts between witness statements and presented explanation exist, the study is fascinating and provides a great deal of information concerning these events. 571102level_rullan.pdf (nicap.org)