Edwards AFB, California: Askania camera crew films domed disc, officers question them
Between 6:55 and 7:20 a.m. on May 2, 1957, civilian Askania camera operators James D. Bittick and John R. Gettys Jr. filmed a disc-shaped object with a low dome over the Mojave Desert at Edwards AFB.
Background
Frank E. Baker, supervisor of civilian camera operators at Edwards AFB, sent the two-man crews out to their Askania tracking telescopes. As James D. Bittick and John R. Gettys Jr. approached their station in the Mojave Desert, they saw a bright object hovering at about 45° elevation; with Baker's approval they filmed about 100 feet while watching through spotting scopes, as the object moved from about 1 mile to 5 miles away. They described a disc-shaped object with a low dome on top. The base scrambled two jets, but too late, and after the film was turned in three officers interrogated the operators. Future astronaut Gordon Cooper later claimed he was there that day and involved with the tracking. The account follows the entry in George M. Eberhart's chronology UFOs and Intelligence (CUFOS) and the sources cited there; it is not an independent determination by From Beyond Space.