1999-11-08 - Austin, TX - Unknown

I witnessed an extremely bright, pulsing object at approx. 3000 ft, slowly descending and then accelerating - this object was completely silent.

I am a 27 year old Austin, Tx resident. I was travelling on northbound Interstate 35, joining 35 from 183. I was heading north towards the Braker Lane exit. The time was approximately 8:45 p.m. on Monday, November 8th, and I had just left my office to join some friends watching the Dallas game that had just started at 8:00. As I was travelling north on I35, I became aware of an extremely bright, pulsating object in the sky. The object appeared to be descending rather slowly, and was extremely bright - several times brighter than any visible stars in the sky. As I exited on Braker Lane, heading along the frontage road, I still managed to track the object. The object descended appromately 1000, then changed direction, heading almost due south. By that time, I was travelling east on Braker lane, and became aware of more details about this peculiar object. The object appeared to be accelerating - my estimate would be approx. 400-450 miles an hour at this point. Something else caught my eye - 2 tiny lights that were trailing this object. By this time, Both objects had passed me, and I was looking behind them as they continued south. The original bright object that I first sighted now appeared to sport several red blinking lights on the anterior of the object - these lights blinked in sequence, similar to standard navigational lights (however, there were at least 5-6 of these lights on the anterior of the craft). In addition, there appeared to be some kind of strobe or circular light on the belly of the craft - this appears to be what accounted for the extremely bright, pulsating light that I had witnessed earlier. However, as the object was starting to become perpindicular/head away from me at this point, this characteristic had become less apparent. The two white lights that were trailing the craft (from about a mile) appeared to be the exhaust of a seperate, conventional jet aircraft. As I arrived at my friends house I immediately stopped my engine and climbed out, stil! l tracki ng the two objects. The first thing I noticed was that the first craft was extremely silent - no audible propulsion sounds were discernable. In addition, dogs in yards directly under the craft's path were barking loudly, and this could be heard distinctly as the craft passed over the subdivision. What appeared to be a jet aircraft followed this path shortly after the unidentified craft, and this audible noise did not disturb the animals. I lost sight of both objects as they passed over the horizon, but that is not the end of my sighting. At approximately 9:10 pm the same night, I had stepped outside into the backyard of my friend's duplex to smoke a cigarette. I must make the disclaimer at this point that I was in no way under the influence of any psychoactive/hallucinogenic substances, or even alcohol. Stunned by the earlier sighting, I watched the skies as I smoked the cigarette. To my suprise, looking east over the roof of the duplex, I spotted a bright light of similar intensity slowly arcing up in a straight path. Iridium satellite, or some other orbiting satellite, is what I first thought. The altitude/speed seemed consistent with an orbital satellite - however, as this object passed right over my head, I was again able to glimpse the flashing red lights on the anterior, and then knew it was the same object as I had seed earlier. However, this time the object's altitude was (estimated) at least 50-60000 feet, and it's speed had to be several times supersonic, at least mach 8-9, to account for the terrific speed in which it traversed the sky from horizon to horizon. It's long, arcing flight from horizon to horizon occured within about 4-5 seconds, and that was a good indication of it's altitude and speed, as I watched it ascend from the east, pass straight over me, and continue to the west, until it passed from my view. I did not see any conventional aircraft in pursuit this time (no conventional aircraft to my knowledge could demonstrate this type of acceleration/speed). My final thoughts: The red blinking lights indicate possible navigation lights, lending an earthly explanation to this - could this be an Aurora sighting? One thing's for certain, though, this is new and completely unconventional propulsion system. I believe that the bright, pulsating glow of the circle? underneath the craft has something to do with the propulsion - just by shear virtue of its intense luminosity.