in may 1955, vallée first sighted an unidentified flying object over his pontoise home. six years later in 1961, while working on the staff of the french space committee, vallée claims to have witnessed the destruction of the tracking tapes of an unknown object orbiting the earth. the particular object was a retrograde satellite – that is, a satellite orbiting the earth in the opposite direction to the earth's rotation. at the time he observed this, there were no rockets powerful enough to launch such a satellite, so the team was quite excited as they assumed that the earth's gravity had captured a natural satellite (asteroid). he claims that an unnamed superior came and erased the tape. these events contributed to vallée's long-standing interest in the ufo phenomenon. vallée began to correspond with aimé michel (who would become a lifelong mentor and research collaborator) in 1958.