Mystery US missile launches

bobbymike

bobbymike

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(CBS) A mysterious missile launch off the southern California coast was caught by CBS affiliate KCBS's cameras Monday night, and officials are staying tight-lipped over the nature of the projectile. CBS station KFMB put in calls to the Navy and Air Force Monday night about the striking launch off the coast of Los Angeles, which was easily visible from the coast, but the military has said nothing about the launch. KFMB showed video of the apparent missile to former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Robert Ellsworth, who is also a former Deputy Secretary of Defense, to get his thoughts. Scroll down for KFMB video showing the launch.

"It's spectacular… It takes people's breath away," said Ellsworth, calling the projectile, "a big missile". Magnificent images were captured by the KCBS news helicopter in L.A. around sunset Monday evening. The location of the missile was about 35 miles out to sea, west of L.A. and north of Catalina Island. A Navy spokesperson told KFMB it wasn't their missile. He said there was no Navy activity reported in the area Monday evening. On Friday night, Vandenberg Air Force Base, in California, launched a Delta II rocket, carrying an Italian satellite into orbit, but a sergeant at the base told KFMB there had been no launches since then. Ellsworth urged American to wait for definitive answers to come from the military.

When asked, however, what he thought it might be, the former ambassador said it could possibly have been a missile test timed as a demonstration of American military might as President Obama tours Asia. "It could be a test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile from a submarine … to demonstrate, mainly to Asia, that we can do that," speculated Ellsworth. Ellsworth said such tests were carried out in the Atlantic to demonstrate America's power to the Soviets, when there was a Soviet Union, but he doesn't believe an ICBM has previously been tested by the U.S. over the Pacific.

Officially, at least, the projectile remains a mystery missile. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/09/national/main7036716.shtml
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The gentleman they got to comment is not much of a help, anyone here at SP want to take a crack at it?

My two cents; a test of ATK's submarine launched global strike missile?
 
SeaLaunch is dead for a while
 
From Breaking News on Twitter
Pentagon spokesman on mystery missile: 'We've come up empty with any explanation,' but 'are not alarmed about this until we know more'
Click to expand...

You have got to be kidding me! They have no idea who launched a missile off the coast of Los Angeles, but aren't going to worry about it until they know who did it? And why would we test an ICBM right off the coast of a major US city, near busy air and sea traffic lanes, and then have everyone deny they did it if we were "sending a message"? The only message I could see from that is "look at us, we're dumber than a box of hammers!" FAA has apparently said that they didn't authorize any civilian launches.
 
canisd said:
From Breaking News on Twitter
Pentagon spokesman on mystery missile: 'We've come up empty with any explanation,' but 'are not alarmed about this until we know more'
Click to expand...

You have got to be kidding me!
Click to expand...

You're right! The Pentagon, which is the single most budget eating entity in the U.S., with experts and military men galore supposed to be the best on the planet at planifying and scrutinizing everything would NOT know who could have launched a missile from U.S. territory AND not worry about it? This has got to be the single most preposterous announcement made by the Pentagon since... er, well, not so long ago? ;D ::)
 
I wonder if anyone plotted a course heading for the missile. Maybe someone will come up with a radar plot or some other source of independent confirmation in the near future.
 
My guess
that was a US NAVY SLBM test from Sub, toward the Kwajalein Atoll to verify weapon system performance.
using radar system of Vandenberg Air Force Base to check that.
 
Could it (how improbable this may sound) have been an undetected foreign submarine, launching a missile? To demonstrate capability (or to scare the public or military) of sneaking into US territorial waters and strike f.e. LA from close distance?
 
There are no foreign submarines quiet enough to get that close to the USA and launch a ballistic missile without us knowing about it. Could've been a USN SLBM, but that'd be a bit weird. Do we still report test firings to the Russians?

Why are people sure it's a missile? To have that visible of a profile, it has to be something with a big motor. The size of the plume rules out something smallish like THAAD or SM-3. Plus, if you have that much smoke coming out the back of an airplane, it usually occurs in the opposite direction.

At least we know it wasn't a Bulava...no post-launch explosion. Guess that rules out a sneaky Russian move ;D

This almost has to be some sort of covert test.

1. If it was a launch involving a classified payload, they tell you as much.

2. If it was something black, then yeah, chances are 99% of the people in the Pentagon will have no legitimate clue WTF it was.

3. If it did happen out at sea, it was probably done so they didn't have to get FAA approval, launching in a window where no air traffic was present (note the distinct lack of people on airliners chiming in about this, despite claims that it happened under "busy air traffic lanes").

Add up 1, 2, and 3 and you get some sort of secret SLBM test. To me, that smells like a conventional SLBM trial.
 
There has been a NOTAM issued for the area of the launch, but for today:
KZLA LOS ANGELES A2832/10 - THE FOLLOWING RESTRICTIONS ARE REQUIRED DUE TO NAVAL AIR WARFARE CENTER WEAPONS DIVISION ACTIVATION OF W537. IN THE INTEREST OF SAFETY, ALL NON-PARTICIPATING PILOTS ARE ADVISED TO AVOID W537. IFR TRAFFIC UNDER ATC JURISDICTION SHOULD ANTICIPATE CLEARANCE AROUND W537 AND CAE 1176. CAE 1155 WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE FOR OCEANIC TRANSITION. CAE 1316 & CAE 1318 WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE FOR OCEANIC TRANSITION. CAE 1177 WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR OCEANIC TRANSITION. W537 ACTIVE, CAE 1176 CLOSED. SURFACE - FL390, 09 NOV 20:00 2010 UNTIL 10 NOV 01:00 2010. CREATED: 08 NOV 20:52 2010

This is the area in question, which would fall within the area the plume was in:
http://skyvector.com/?ll=34.03656120385772,-121.69918142437554&chart=24&zoom=5

San Nicolas Island is a USAF-managed missile range. That appears to be where this came from.
 
Possibly not a missile launch at all. Just a well placed contrail lining up with lots of observers

http://uncinus.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/4/


I agree with the blogger in that its moving too slow to be a missile launch and at roughly 46 seconds the "missile" has a nice red/green hue.. Maybe aircraft lights or reflections off the fuselage?
 
quellish said:
San Nicolas Island is a USAF-managed missile range. That appears to be where this came from.
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oh, that island is well known place for those who believe in Aurora and another mystery high-speed unknowns...
 
Also well known for protected sea lions ;)
 
Airplane going east and not a missile launch going west

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/USA808/history/20101108/1955Z/PHNL/KPHX

Right place, right time.
 
Bill Sweetman at Aviation Week thinks missile launch as the contrail shows billowing due to changes in wind speed at different altitudes (if I am paraphrasing correctly)

So Navy and Air Force says ??? so does that leave MDA? Test of a target missile for an ABL test. If I remember correctly the MDA did not announce the last test until days later.
 
bobbymike said:
Bill Sweetman at Aviation Week thinks missile launch as the contrail shows billowing due to changes in wind speed at different altitudes (if I am paraphrasing correctly)

So Navy and Air Force says ??? so does that leave MDA? Test of a target missile for an ABL test. If I remember correctly the MDA did not announce the last test until days later.
Click to expand...

No, because there is no "independent" MDA organization other than the headquarters, they depend on the services to do all the work.
 
But that does not preclude MDA from controlling the information does it?
 
SOC said:
Do we still report test firings to the Russians?
Click to expand...
no, you are not reporting to us anymore, bad guys - and we want to know what the hell was it ;)
 
bobbymike said:
Bill Sweetman at Aviation Week thinks missile launch as the contrail shows billowing due to changes in wind speed at different altitudes (if I am paraphrasing correctly)
Click to expand...

Well, as someone on the ground in the area at the time, I can tell you it was very windy until well after sunset yesterday. I don't know about winds aloft, but it was hazardous on the ground in LA up through Ventura. The "billowing" could easily be the winds dispersing a horizontal contrail OR a vertical missile plume.
I was looking in that direction at the time, and did not see the trail. I did however see the helo at about that time near Santa Monica.
 
I love moments like this. Gives every idiot a chance to blunt Occom's razor with their ego. The rest of us who've seen an aircraft contrail before can sit back and laugh...
 
Nik said:
Could it have been a misidentified meteorite ??
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Is "meteorite" the name all the cool kids use to call "jet aircraft" these days?

Note that while there is a bright speck visible for a portion of the "launch" (thus presumed to be the visible glow from the rocket), it's not visible for the full duration. Which is *should* be if it continues to spew out exhaust.

On the other hand, if it's a jetliner, then the bright flare is mearly sunlight glinting off the side or wings for those moments while the geometry is just right.
 
Here is a long post detailing the "contrail" theory

http://uncinus.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/4/
 
Watching the better video in the link above, I'm now (too) leaning more to the idea that it might be just a jet-contrail... Speed is indeed rather slow for a missile and the last images in that vid point more to the movement of a jet...
 
The funniest thing about this incident is not the ambiguous source of the cloud; airliner or rocket. It is that something can be 'launched' in a well documented US missile testing range and yet still many people will leap to the conclusion that its some foreign missile launch just because a press officer from the US military doesn’t have a quick answer at hand. Are we so inclined to believe the most outlandish explanation for anything remotely ambiguous?
 
Personally, being in Europe and not following exactly what is being tested or not in that area off the coast of California, initially I just took for granted US news-reports that the mystery was about "a missile launch". And I assumed the chopper pilot saw "launch, acceleration, climb, etc".
A foreign (Chinese?) launch seemed rather improbable to me, and though such a launch would be very audacious, provocative, risky and stupid, such a scenario might not be totally impossible.
I woudn't dare to claim it really IS a missile (foreign or not) or just an aircraft, before having more intel about the area, from the aerospace community and from the US government or military. Looking at all the comments floating around online, many people don't bother much to wait for more info or evidence to make up their minds.
 
flateric said:
John Pike says it was contrail
Click to expand...

I say it was a snow cone maker.
NO.
An espresso machine.

If only I spoke in easily quotable sound bites, people would listen....

In other news, those of us here on the ground are all laughing about it. It must have been a slow news day.
 
Orionblamblam said:
Abraham Gubler said:
Are we so inclined to believe the most outlandish explanation for anything remotely ambiguous?
Click to expand...

It's clearly an electricly propelled stealth blimp.
Click to expand...

Shouldn't that be "......a supersonic electrically propelled stealth blimp" ;D

Regards & all,

Thomas L. Nielsen
Luxembourg
 
NASA reports it was their weather ball... rocket. The crew launch officer fainted and accidentally hit the launch button. ::)
 
OK, here's my excuse: until a few hours ago, I was travelling and had little opportunity to give this nonsensical story any research. Fortunately, the Daily Show just had a piece on it; and in that, they included a snippet from the cameraman where he said he tracked the "missile" for ten minutes.

Let me repeat that:

TEN MINUTES.

There is no such friggen thing as a solid rocket that runs for ten freakin' minutes. The Shuttle SRBs run for a whole *two* minutes, and that's a long damned time.

And as Jon Stewart pointed out... "don't missiles travel 18,000 miles per hour? In ten minutes it'd be in Hawaii."
 
Perhaps he had set his camera to "slow motion mode" ?
 
Jemiba said:
Perhaps he had set his camera to "slow motion mode" ?
Click to expand...

http://blog.bahneman.com/content/it-was-us-airways-flight-808

Again, ground truth > media truth.
 
Was it a rocket, a missile, a jet contrail, or a UFO, an unidentified flying object? Based on the news report from Corpus Christi, TX, witnesses saw and filmed what they believed was a missile or rocket launch on Sunday afternoon, January 2nd. (Neither White Sands Missile Range, NASA, or Vanderberg Air Force Base had a missile, rocket, or shuttle launch scheduled for January 2nd, 2011.) One witness, a member of the military, says he ‘saw it’ but ‘doesn’t know what it is’, which means the object is, technically, a UFO, an unidentified flying object.

A news report out of South Texas shows footage (video below) of what may have been a missile launch on January 2nd sighted by several witnesses at Padre Island National Seashore Park located near Corpus Christi, TX.. Also located at Corpus, the Navy’s Naval Air Station located in Flour Bluff. One of the witnesses grabbed footage of the ‘missile launch’ using their IPhone. A couple of the clues from the news report, the object was seen and filmed ‘going straight up’. Based on one witness description, the object was west of their location as they mentioned they didn’t know where the missile was launched, ‘It could have been California or McAllen, TX.’. To the east of Padre Island, the Gulf of Mexico.

Another witnesses, an official from the Naval Air Station in Kingsville, Texas, told Kiii News, he ‘saw it with his own eyes but had no idea what it could be’. A military witness who, we assume, has experience with military aircraft and jet ‘contrails’.

Kiii TV contacted the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, TX, who reported they had no flights scheduled on Sunday afternoon. More from Kiii TV:

According the Vanderberg Air Force Base Launch Schedule, the next scheduled launch is January 11, 2011. Vanderberg AFB, located in Santa Barbara, CA, is home to the Air Force’s spaceport and Western Range, which includes military, government, and commercial launches. Currently there’s no news from the government’s White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico of a missile or rocket launch on January 2, 2011.

In early June of 2009 a Continental Airline pilot reported a ‘missile or rocket’ flew by his passenger jet within a ’150 ft’ over Liberty County, Texas. The altitude of the passenger plane, 13,000 ft. The pilot, a former member of the military. The flight, en route from Houston to South Carolina.

FOX News:

DeFoor told FOXNews.com he couldn’t say whether or not terrorism was suspected or if the plane was targeted. Graduation ceremonies were being held about the same time as the pilot reported seeing the rocket, and it could have been a hobby rocket someone set off.

“The pilot, from what we understand, was former military,” Cpl. Hugh Bishop of the Liberty County Sheriff’s Department told the Chronicle. “He was able to get the coordinates down real quick.”

But, Bishop said deputies searched for where a missile might have been launched from and found nothing.

In November, the case of the mystery missile launch off the coast of southern California. The mystery missile which, depending upon the source, a Pentagon investigation found the ‘missile launch’ and object filmed by a local news helicopter reporter was a jet contrail. Not exactly, as we took the time to read the official response from the Pentagon. The Pentagon stated the mystery missile was ‘most likely a jet contrail’.

What’s important to note, the witness from the Naval Air Station in Kingsville, Jon Gagné, Public Affairs Officer, stated he witnessed the event and didn’t know what it was. A witness who has prior knowledge of military aircraft contrails. One of the more extraordinary mystery missile events, an incident off the Newfoundland coast in January of 2010. An event which caused a ‘firestorm’ of controversy in Canada.

One of the mystery missile like objects photographed by a Newfoundland resident, January, 2010

From CTV Winnipeg:

No one seems to know what two neighbors saw off the coast of Newfoundland earlier this week, but the two are convinced three large bullet-like objects were missiles. And they have photos they say prove it.

It all began around 5 p.m. Monday when Darlene Stewart of Harbour Mille, N.L., was outside snapping photos of a sunset, when she saw a long, thin glimmering object in the sky that appeared as if it came out of water.

The photos she took show a thin object shooting into the air, with a tail of fire and smoke.

She called her neighbour Emmy Pardy, who went to get binoculars for a closer look.

“I went out on the patio and I zoomed in and I saw a humungous bullet, silver-grey in colour and it had flames coming out of the bottom and a trail of smoke,” Pardy told CTV.ca.

“I said to Darlene my God, this looks like it’s a missile or something.”

Stewart and Pardy said the objects were visible in the sky for about 15 minutes.

The women say they watched in fear and thought that a missile could be heading their way.

http://deathby1000papercuts.com/2011/01/mystery-missile-launch-filmed-near-south-texas-coast/
 

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And more about Newfoundland UFO :

The documents also say there were no navy ships involved, and no Canadian Forces missile exercises at the time.

The government has blocked nine pages and a several paragraphs of the UFO documents from public release.

One of the lines leading into a blocked-out portion reads, "Media reporting has linked the sightings to …"

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2010/05/28/ufo-newfoundland-dnd.html
 
" Stewart and Pardy said the objects were visible in the sky for about 15 minutes."

And that tells you everything you need to know. 15 minutes of visibility means *slow.* Which means subsonic jetliner. Which means another non-story.
 

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