Project Twinkle

Project Twinkle was a short-lived U.S. government program established in late 1949 by the Air Force's Cambridge Research Laboratory to investigate green fireballs reported over New Mexico atomic sites like Los Alamos and White Sands, following a 1949 Los Alamos conference. Operating as a subunit of Project Grudge from 1949 to 1951, it deployed cinetheodolites, spectrographic cameras, and radio analysis at observation posts in the American Southwest to photograph and identify the phenomena. Plagued by equipment shortages, budget cuts, frequent relocations, and low morale, it failed to capture definitive evidence and officially concluded the fireballs were natural meteors. However, Dr. Anthony Mirarchi reported 30-foot objects at 150,000 feet over Holloman AFB on April 27, 1950, per Dr. Bruce Maccabee's analysis of archived papers. The project ended with the Korean War's onset, marking an early, unsuccessful U.S. Air Force UFO effort amid shifting skepticism.