NASA fragology files

Hi readers

As you can see by the range of UFO topics I cover in this blog, I spend quite a bit of my spare time browsing magazines, books, and the net in search of material. Sometimes I come across an item of interest, put it away, and only later does a connection appear to some other piece of material in my head. Such a connection occurred yesterday, so today I post!

As part of the ongoing research into the Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, USA case of December 1965; journalist/author Leslie Kean, in 2003, submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for certain NASA documents. (Click here for the full story.)

Part of the request letter read "Please send all NASA Fragology Files for 1962-1967." Kecksburg researchers had in fact already previously obtained a list of these files (click here for the list.) The document containing the list, shows a number of NASA files "...consisting of reports of space objects recovery analysis of fragments to determine national ownership and vehicle origin." The dates 1962-1967 appear on the top of the list. Included in the list is: "F24 Titanium sphere/Australia."

I wondered if the Disclosure Australia Project came across a titanium sphere recovery in Australia in the period 1962-1967, while they were researching the Australian Government's UFO files? I thought it was long shot but worth a look at the Disclosure Australia website material at (click here.)

It took me a while to find a reference to a titanium sphere, but I did so (Click here). Newsletter 9 dated 2004.

In looking through files from the National Archives of Australia, the Project found information about a 50cm diameter titanium sphere found in September 1965 at a place called Merkanooka, in Western Australia. The Project found a Department of Supply file number SA5644/3/1 titled "Joint Intelligence Bureau request for an examination of a sphere found at Merkanooka, WA."

A Department of Supply memo dated 1 April 1966 stated "...the object is certainly of USA origin..." The sphere was forwarded to Defence R&D Attache in Washington for handing over to NASA.

A later report on the file said that NASA determined the sphere "...was a fragment from the Gemini 5 spaceflight" specifically a Gemini 20 inch OAMS fuel tank.

So, although we have not located the NASA fragology file number F24; it would seem that we have a good knowledge of what it was about. To my knowledge, and a search of the net, no one else has ever found an official Government file relating to one of NASA's fragology files.