NASC Inquiry into Bahia, Brazil Incident, November 13, 1963

This record is a CIA Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) wire report, dated November 9, 1963, drawn from the files of Edward C. Welsh, Executive Secretary of the National Aeronautics and Space Council (NASC). It transcribes a Radio Tupi broadcast from Rio de Janeiro reporting that a large metal sphere had crashed in Conde, Bahia, Brazil, gouging a four-meter hole. The sphere was described as having window-like openings with thick glass and containing a human body in heavy clothing bearing undecipherable inscriptions. Handwritten annotations dated November 13, 1963 record a NASC inquiry to the State Department requesting that the U.S. Embassy in Rio de Janeiro verify the report locally.

The document is significant because it places the Conde, Bahia incident directly within the Executive Office of the President, demonstrating that NASC — a cabinet-level body — tracked and acted on the report through official diplomatic channels. The FBIS text is brief and the annotations are partially illegible. The record links to a subsequent State Department diplomatic cable (DOS-UAP-D001), suggesting a coordinated inter-agency effort to assess the incident.