DSP "fast walker" detection (1984)
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 6
| Date | 5 May 1984 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Secrecy & cover-up (topic), Government programs (topic), Ocean & underwater (topic) |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 96 |
| Year | 1984 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1984 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 7 |
According to an anonymous source cited by researchers, on 5 May 1984 a U.S. Defense Support Program (DSP) early-warning satellite detected an unidentified object passing very close to it in space. The event became the best-known "fast walker", the military term for unknown objects detected by these satellites, but it rests on an anonymous account.[1][2]
Fast walkers
DSP satellites, first launched in 1970, use infrared sensors to detect missile launches and form the space-based part of NORAD's warning system. Over the years their sensors have occasionally picked up fast-moving objects that were neither missiles nor known satellites, nicknamed "fast walkers"; analysts have suggested that most are foreign or other satellites briefly crossing a DSP satellite's field of view.[2][3][4]
The 1984 account
Accounts say the object passed within about 20 miles of the satellite and that the event generated a lengthy internal report, most of which remains classified. The story spread through UFO circles in the 1990s, partly through journalists' reports on DSP's role in detecting unknown objects.[1][3]
Explanations and secrecy
No official report has been released. Some analysts suggest the object was another satellite or debris, possibly a U.S. satellite left in an unplanned orbit by a launch failure earlier that year. In 2013 U.S. Northern Command told researcher John Greenewald that all NORAD material on fast walkers and slow walkers was classified.[2][4]
People and topics
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Fastwalker — A nickname for fast-moving unknown objects detected by space sensors.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
On the Timeline
- Remote viewers and a military trial anomaly (1984) (May 1984) — Alleged CIA documents describe the Army's remote viewers studying an anomaly during military trials.
- Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit (16 May 1984) — An Army FOIA reply says an informal 'Interplanetary Phenomenon Unit' once studied UAP.
See every 1984 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- "May 5, 1984 — DSP orbit incident", NICAP · web.archive.org · archived copy
- "Fastwalkers & Slowwalkers", The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- "History of the Defense Support Program", GlobalSecurity · globalsecurity.org · archived copy
- "Fastwalkers", CosmoQuest Forum · forum.cosmoquest.org · archived copy
- 1984 UFO chronology (DSP 'Fast Walker') — Real TV UFOs · realtvufos.blogspot.com · archived copy
- Fastwalker reports (archive) · thelivingmoon.com · archived copy
- nicap.org · nicap.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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