By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR
Published: 20:48 BST, 7 August 2026 | Updated: 21:02 BST, 7 August 2026
Declassified UFO files have exposed an extraordinary US investigation into claims that a ‘dead spaceman’ was discovered inside a mysterious metal sphere.
The object was said to have plummeted into the center of Conde, a municipality in the Brazilian state of Bahia, on November 8, 1963, blasting a hole approximately 13 feet deep.
Reports claimed the sphere had glass-covered windows and contained a human body dressed in heavy clothing marked with inscriptions nobody could decipher.
The astonishing account sparked inquiries by American officials, who asked diplomats in Brazil to determine whether something inexplicable had fallen from the sky.
Details of the alleged crash and its mysterious occupant were circulated among the State Department, Department of Defense and NASA.
For six days, officials pursued conflicting reports involving a possible spacecraft, a dead crewman and a suspected weather balloon.
But when US diplomats attempted to verify the account, the extraordinary mystery began to collapse.
The records were included in the Trump administration’s fifth tranche of UFO files released on Friday, alongside dozens of reports, images and videos previously unavailable to the public.
The object was said to have crashed into the center of Conde, a municipality in the Brazilian state of Bahia, on November 8, 1963, gouging a hole approximately 13 feet deep
On November 14, the US Embassy in Rio sent a telegram to the State Department and the American Consulate in Salvador asking for clarification
The story first surfaced in a Portuguese-language broadcast by Radio Tupi in Rio de Janeiro late on November 8, 1963.
A US government transcript recorded the station reporting that a ‘large metal sphere’ had fallen in the middle of Conde.
‘Inside is a human body dressed in heavy clothing bearing inscriptions which cannot be deciphered,’ the transcript stated.