2011-07-04 - Minot, ND - Oval

Bright orange fast mover.

This event happened July 4th, 2011, after sunset. Although, I’m unsure of the exact time, it was around 10:15 PM CDT. There was still plenty of light in the North Dakota evening sky. The sky was still blue and there was some scattered stratus clouds at an estimated 20,000-25,000 feet to my SE. The clouds were normal white with grey shadowed areas. The visibility was unlimited. The temperature was around 75 F and the wind was light.

I hold a commercial pilots license and a BA. My state of mind was good; I was alert, well rested and completely sober. I was wearing my glasses which bring my vision to 20/15 – 20/10. I have a small loss of hearing at 50Hz left ear.

I was standing on my driveway looking to the north at a few fireworks going off in the valley. I noticed a reddish/orange glowing orb appearing to rise into the sky at about the same area of the fireworks. At first I thought it was part of the display and continued to watch expecting a firework burst. The object continued in my direction getting brighter and moving horizontal rather than vertical. It had been coming from the same direction as Minot Air Force Base. I concluded that it was traveling from the horizon rather than ascending vertically as I first thought. It was not Fireworks.

I kept my eyes fixed on the object as it almost passed over my house and a little to the east. It was solid flaming orange with a slight elongated oval, and very bright, much, much brighter than ISS and moving much faster than an airliner at altitude. It was traveling to the SSE at 160 to 170 degrees. It was close enough to hear any noise created by jet engines or sonic booms but it was completely silent. I kept on watching it as it moved through the cloud deck and into blue sky. It seemed to accelerate as it moved further southeast and I estimated it was at 20,000 to 25,000 feet and well above Mach 1. It disappeared into the clouds further south. It didn’t leave any condensation trails and moved in a straight line. I want to emphasize that the object was extremely fast moving and was silent. I’ve witnessed SR-71s making high speed passes and a Space shuttle launch along with B2 fly over’s and myriads of other military aircraft in-flight along with other celestial events.! This thing topped them all. Spooky stuff for sure.

About 10-20 minutes later I saw another orange object almost due north. It appeared to be climbing to the NW at a steep rate of climb. It was smaller in size but orange like the other one. I could not determine its distance but, Runway 29 at the M.A.F.B. would be on that heading. I ran inside my house to get my camera and field glasses and when I returned 30 seconds later it was gone.

Earlier that year in March I was outside on my driveway in the middle of the night (3 AM) getting some fresh air. I looked to the east and saw a solid orange object in the sky moving at about the speed of a small 4 seat airplane. It seemed to be just lumbering along and I watched for awhile thinking this was the atmosphere playing tricks on me because of its solid bright orange appearance. Later, I looked on-line to see if it was the space station and found out it wasn’t ISS or any other satellite or orbiting debris.