Big Sur / Vandenberg missile-film claim (September 1964)
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The visual record
Illustrations, recordings and archival references — each with its own provenance. A documented source is a starting point for investigation, not a verdict on its explanation.
Atlas ICBM raised for launch (1960s)
An Atlas ICBM being raised on its launcher in the early 1960s — the missile type whose dummy warhead Robert Jacobs says his Big Sur telescope filmed being struck by an object in September 1964. Official photograph · context; the film itself was never released.
U.S. Air Force · 1960 ↗Public domain — US government workLicence terms ↗American Alchemy · 0:56:55
Open the source at the cited time. The episode thumbnail is video packaging, not a photograph of the reported subject.
American Alchemy / Jesse Michels ↗YouTube-hosted preview and player; not relicensedJesse Michels · 3:02:29
Open the source at the cited time. The episode thumbnail is video packaging, not a photograph of the reported subject.
American Alchemy / Jesse Michels ↗YouTube-hosted preview and player; not relicensedLt Robert Jacobs, a photo-instrumentation officer, said a telescope film of an Atlas launch from Vandenberg in September 1964 showed a disc circling the dummy warhead and firing beams before it tumbled, and that his commander ordered him never to speak of it. In the corpus Robert Salas and other guests cite Jacobs and the reprisals he described.
The event
| Date | |
|---|---|
| Place | 34.7420, -120.5724 approximate · United States |
| Official response | The Air Force has not confirmed the existence of the film; Jacobs's superior, Florenze Mansmann, corroborated the account in later interviews. |
Reported by
- bob jacobs military USAF lieutenant, 1369th Photographic Squadron
Investigated by
- Robert Hastings researcher
Who spoke about it later
- Robert Salas 0:56:55 “This UFO Shut Down 10 Nukes!” - Air Force Officer Robert Salas ▶ 2025
Mentioned in the corpus
Passages this record cites, with the stamp of the block each quote sits in.
“This UFO Shut Down 10 Nukes!” - Air Force Officer Robert Salas 12 July 2025
The CIA Scientist That Contacted an Alien Council 1 May 2026
- 3:02:29 ▶ Jesse Michels
The guy in the photo instrumentation specialist named Bob Jacobs. Um so, that's
- 3:02:29 ▶ Jesse Michels
On the map
Big Sur / Vandenberg missile-film claim (September 1964), Malmstrom AFB missile shutdown (March 1967), Richard Barr Vandenberg missile-site encounter (September 1964), Vandenberg "red square" (October 2003). Open the full map filtered to this record.
Sources on this record
- 0:56:55 “This UFO Shut Down 10 Nukes!” - Air Force Officer Robert Salas ▶
people like Bob Jacobs, photo instrumentation specialist at Vandenberg in ' 64, he's experienced obviously a lot of reprisals and, you know, took a
- 3:02:29 The CIA Scientist That Contacted an Alien Council · Jesse Michels ▶
The guy in the photo instrumentation specialist named Bob Jacobs. Um so, that's
- Big Sur UFO film claim