Launch News Mystery missile launched off US Pacific Coast near LA

[Jarvitä]

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/11/09/1711217/Mystery-Missile-Launched-Near-LA?from=rss

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/09/national/main7036716.shtml

"CBS News is reporting the launch of an unidentified missile of the coast of California. No one wants to take credit for it."
The article has visuals taken from a CBS affiliate's helicopter, and a Navy spokesman said it wasn't theirs.

Man the fallout shelters! :sos:

---------- Post added at 08:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:27 PM ----------

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11721981

Pentagon officials say they cannot explain reports of a missile launch off the coast of California on Monday.

A CBS News helicopter captured what looked like the vapour trail of a missile rising from the water about 35 miles (56 km) offshore.

"Right now all indications are that it was not [defence department] involvement in this launch" Pentagon spokesman Col David Lapan said.

The Pentagon does not consider the missile a threat.

"So far we've come up empty with any explanation," Col Lapan said. "We're doing everything we can to try to figure out if anybody has any knowledge of what this event may have been."

Under normal circumstances, the launch of a US missile would require several different authorisations and notifications, but none are evident.

It is unclear if the suspected missile was launched from land or sea.

 

[Wishbone]

Okay folks, please confess who tried out his DG off the West Coast. We won't tell anybody...

 

[Artlav]

So, someone decided to test their homemade spaceship?

Any of the reports say how far/high did it go?
Are they sure it's not a rare kind of cloud?

 

[Fabri91]

So, someone decided to test their homemade spaceship?

Any of the reports say how far/high did it go?
Are they sure it's not a rare kind of cloud?

Don't think so...watch the cbs news report, the launch contrail was apparently filmed and it looks quite big.

 

[Wishbone]

seeSat is split 3:1 in favour of a Trident launch.

http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Nov-2010/0107.html

 

[Urwumpe]

I doubt it was a Trident launch, such missiles have such a long range, that launching one of them makes the Russians nervous.

Did somebody have a NAVTEX for the event?

 

[Brycesv1]

oh noes:blink:. it was them darnded terror type peoples comeing to take our toys in our sleep:uhh:. all good peace loving americans should be afraid and listen to every little thing our government tells us to do about our enemies being able to sneak weapons of mass destruction into the country and testing them on californians....

/rant

 

[SiberianTiger]

Under normal circumstances, the launch of a US missile would require several different authorisations and notifications, but none are evident.

Really so?

 

[FordPrefect]

Wow, even NORAD was looking into this. Amazing. Maybe they should check recent flights on flightaware.com
Looks nothing else like an approaching airliner to me, flying at cruise altitude, trailing a large contrail, which is getting displaced by different high altitude winds at the more distant parts. If this was anything actually going up, the trail would not have the same red sunset glow color from "bottom to the top" (see Shuttle launches at Dawn/dusk).

Getting ready my application for NORAD :lol:

 

[theflyingfish]

They now say that it might have been a contrail off of a jetliner that the wind blew around.

I don't know, but wouldn't it be relatively easy to find out who did it? Doesn't NORAD have really powerful radar that can detect a marble from really far away, or some satellite overheads, or something? If we can't figure out who launched a giant rocket 35 miles off our own coast, we're in big trouble.

 

[Brycesv1]

simply furthering my loss of faith in human percieved intelligence

 

[T.Neo]

Never mind me, I'll be with my friends the coconut crabs and the tasmanian tiger, they trump your feeble human intelligence! Haven't you seen their gigantic, world-spanning civilisations?

I thought not.

 

[Urwumpe]

This was no contrail of a jetliner, this was 100% a solid propellant rocket. Jetliners don't make contrail at so low altitude, and get pretty slow when ascending that steep.

This was also too big for being a small SAM, this was either a large ICBM or a small launch vehicle. Could be a ballistic missile heading towards Kwajalein.

This is how a Trident launch looks like:

And this a Minuteman:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChhYOO1s-nY"]YouTube - Minuteman III Missile Launch - California to Kwajalein Atoll[/ame]

The size of a Minuteman III seems pretty fitting, but it is too far South for it.

 

[Star Voyager]

Is it possible it was some GBI?

 

[Urwumpe]

Is it possible it was some GBI?

No, the next GBI launch is scheduled for December 6.

 

[FordPrefect]

I have to disagree strongly here, Urwumpe. Rare occasion..

This is definitely an airliner. It is flying level at cruise altitude and is approaching from far distance (horizon), giving the impression of something going up. However it is simply getting closer. Contrails on airliners can be huge. The trail towards the bottom (or actually at the more distant parts) was already displaced by high altitude winds.
As I've said above, if this was actually anything going up steeply, the trail would change color to less red and eventually white as it would rise into full, unfiltered sunlight.

Here's another video of this "event", which should make it clearer:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/...unch.cnn?hpt=C2

 

[tblaxland]

I agree with FordPrefect here. Others do too: http://uncinus.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/4/. Looks like ContrailScience crashed and burned with all the hits...

 

[astrosammy]

It looks a bit strange... But I remember many nice, clear winter mornings with many planes coming from the east, and the contrails looked close to that.

 

[JonnyBGoode]

Here's another video of this "event", which should make it clearer:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/...unch.cnn?hpt=C2

Would have been nice if there wasn't a big graphic covering half of it.

 

[Urwumpe]

I have to disagree strongly here, Urwumpe. Rare occasion..

I thought about it as well, but rejected it because of the same reasons that you cite as contrail-evidence. The light conditions also fit for a fast shallow missile, it must not raise as steep as a Space Shuttle.

For example, the base of the contrail fits better on a vertical, than a horizontal path, that is blown away by wind...

I would say, a TMA could fit for both the constant speed jet and the accelerating rocket, since the observer is stationary.

But your theory at least explains well why the US military is so calm about what goes on in their waters.