# December 12, 1951 — Hastings, MN — ‘Deke’ Slayton / P-51 Encounter

**URL:** <https://uapdiscovery.discourse.group/t/december-12-1951-hastings-mn-deke-slayton-p-51-encounter/428>\
**Category:** Blue Book Unknowns\
**Created:** [December 11, 2025, 10:22pm UTC](https://uapdiscovery.discourse.group/t/december-12-1951-hastings-mn-deke-slayton-p-51-encounter/428 "2025-12-11T22:22:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![jeffknox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e47c2d/32.png) [@jeffknox](https://uapdiscovery.discourse.group/u/jeffknox)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2025, 10:22pm UTC](https://uapdiscovery.discourse.group/t/december-12-1951-hastings-mn-deke-slayton-p-51-encounter/428/1 "2025-12-11T22:22:23Z")

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![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/uapdiscovery/original/2X/6/647b8994a13046ff73029331ebc4a18f6f8fa258.jpeg)

December 12, 1951 — Hastings, MN  
3:50 p.m. USAF Capt. Donald “Deke” Slayton, flying a P-51 fighter at 10,000 feet, sees a whitish or gray object off his left wing about one mile away and 1,000 feet below his flight level about five miles southeast of Hastings, Minnesota. It looks like a kite at first, then like a weather balloon, then two rapidly revolving discs that overlap with centers about 1 foot apart. He attempts an intercept, but the UFO increases speed and disappears. [Eberhart]

Record Card:

 ![12121951-HastingsMN-BBCard](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/uapdiscovery/original/2X/0/06780450cae9373f657db3e8ffdec13a8a99b278.jpeg)

ATIC Report (AF-112):

 ![12121951-HastingsMN-BB-ATIC-1](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/uapdiscovery/original/2X/8/89b0fb0c5cf27ee01d7fca8ae0173b2b3a046924.jpeg)

 ![12121951-HastingsMN-BB-ATIC-2](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/uapdiscovery/original/2X/4/4b6d19e6dc449b92790d7db0d0407202d6012005.jpeg)

 ![12121951-HastingsMN-BB-ATIC-3](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/uapdiscovery/original/2X/1/12408dc74c21c639ee04bc2bbe6e9618c4ff7aae.jpeg)

Project Blue Book Status Report 2+Table, SR3 Table:

 ![12121951-HastingsMN-BB-StatusReport2](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/uapdiscovery/original/2X/a/ac2ad53e2bc0e40ebdbd68e14d2b398b9917a344.jpeg)

 ![12121951-HastingsMN-PBBSR2-Table](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/uapdiscovery/original/2X/7/7025e36b7a4e3854f4db88104ee9cc2035069ef7.png)

 ![12121951-HastingsMN-PBBSR3-Table](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/uapdiscovery/original/2X/c/ce70cc493c956ecbb324022e71f422c521be44a5.png)

Sources:  
Brad Sparks, Blue Books Unknowns Catalogue, Case 496, p. 117;

 ![12121951-HastingsMN-Sparks-Case496-p117](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/uapdiscovery/original/2X/4/46bc5117a2aa7da284fbfe0dfb6753740fe44076.png)

Donald K. Slayton, Michael Cassutt, “Deke!: An Autobiography”, Macmillan, 1994, pp. 49-51;’

 ![12121951-HastingsMN-Deke-p49](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/uapdiscovery/original/2X/1/1548d6648f3dead397eba5e0b124f1fa4048f65b.jpeg)

 ![12121951-HastingsMN-Deke-p50](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/uapdiscovery/original/2X/b/b4a3c9520d6117280d48986d25a1d6703482e806.jpeg)

 ![12121951-HastingsMN-Deke-p51](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/uapdiscovery/original/2X/f/fa7fed590650fbb488aa3c210f77ab2d2400c77e.jpeg)

NICAP, “‘Deke’ Slayton / P-51 Encounter”;

> **[UFO Report](http://www.nicap.org/511212hastings_dir.htm)**

Frank Stalter, “Astronaut Deke Slayton’s Amazing UFO Encounter,” UFOPartisan weblog, October 2009;

> **[ASTRONAUT DEKE SLAYTON'S AMAZING UFO ENCOUNTER](http://ufopartisan.blogspot.com/2009/10/astronaut-deke-slaytons-amazing-ufo.html)**
>
> Deke Slayton was one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts. He served as NASA's Director of Flight Crew Operations for nine yea...

“Astronaut Deke Slayton UFO Encounter 1951” eeasynow Youtube channel, July 15, 2012;

[![](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/uploads/uapdiscovery/original/2X/3/3b663a6773599efa0dc1ecf6ffeb2a2cdab79159.jpeg "Astronaut Deke Slayton UFO Encounter 1951") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E_SFwrh8wo)