Mystery After Missile Fired Off California

[Ulysses31]

Someone is going to get waterboarded for this

Mystery After Missile Fired Off California


A mysterious missile being fired off the southern Californian coast has been caught on camera - but it has not been confirmed who launched it or why


The spectacular footage was taken by a news helicopter and the missile's trail could be seen from Los Angeles.

The location was described as west of Los Angeles, north of Catalina Island, and about 35 miles out to sea.

A US Navy spokesperson said it was not their missile, adding there was no navy activity reported in that part of the region.

The air force has also said nothing about the launch, which took place around 5pm (local time) on Monday.

Last Friday, Vandenberg Air Force Base in California launched a Delta II rocket, carrying the Thales Alenia Space-Italia COSMO SkyMed satellite.

But a sergeant at the base said there have been no launches since then.

It is not known who fired the missile


Military officials said a planned military exercise would not have been held that close to LA.

Officials were also examining the possibility it was a "commercial launch of some kind", or that amateurs had built a device capable of creating such a plume, according to a report.

Robert Ellsworth, former US ambassador to Nato and an ex-deputy secretary of defence, said: "It's spectacular… It takes people's breath away."

He called the projectile "a big missile" but said it did not appear to be a Tomahawk.

Mr Ellsworth said it might 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 (ICBM) from a submarine … to demonstrate, mainly to Asia, that we can do that," he speculated.

The missile was caught on camera by a news helicopter


Mr 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 does not believe an ICBM has previously been tested by the US over the Pacific.

At the moment, the mystery over the missile goes on.


See video here
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Wo...ile_Fired_Off_California_And_Caught_On_Camera

 

[STDiva]

I may....have been sleepwalking.

 

[vodkazvictim]

I.... was sleepwanking.

 

[Kingfisher]

Amateur rocket?

 

[Trident1]

Amateur rocket?

Estes rocket.

 

[pete rose]

so did we hit the freedom haters yet?

 

[Jagger69]

Estes rocket.

You'd have to have a 3-stage "Big Daddy" loaded up with about 500 "E" series engines to get that kind of performance!

http://www.estesrockets.com/store/rockets/kits/skill-2/02162-big-daddytm.html

My guess is that some clown at Vandenberg pressed the wrong button. Oops!! :eek:

 

[shayd]

Still looks pretty cool.

 

[Member2019]

Visual illusion ...

The angle was not ballistic but horizontal flight and clearly an aircraft. But the angle the one, popular video was shot suggested it could be ballistic.

Given FAA, USAF and other radars had not ballastic or other track over the entire day, and no other unusual or untracked flight paths, it very much sounds like an aircraft.

 

[Ace Bandage]

I believe the official word was that it was a vapor trail. :dunno:

It was either that or some swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus.

 

[emceeemcee]

So the military had absolutely no idea what this missile looking thing in the sky was but they said there was nothing to worry about.


Anyone ever get the impression they are ruled by people just out to take the piss?

 

[Member2019]

From the other side ...

So the military had absolutely no idea what this missile looking thing in the sky was but they said there was nothing to worry about.
Anyone ever get the impression they are ruled by people just out to take the piss?

Being a former engineer in the defense-aero industry, you have to see it from the other side.

Do you know how many times people bring stuff up like this and ask people like me to explain it? We have no idea what we're looking at, the context and many other things, and then have to make educated guesses, based on a single piece of information with no context. But once we get a second, and a third and a fourth and other sources, plus more context, it makes total sense. NASA regularly gets hit with stuff that is just flat out illusion, and people put them on-the-spot.

In each and every case, it's people giving limited information with no context.

It was clearly a horizontal trajectory. That was quickly shown when other photography and video came streaming in. The news crew was just up-range and directly "behind" the aircraft. The result was simple air mixture and elapsed time. It happens regularly. The size of aircraft and the output of their engines often results in large plumes like this, given conditions.

If anything was on a ballistic trajectory, it would have been tracked by the FAA and the military.

Sometimes it's the normal that explains everything. There are 5,000 aircraft in the air during the day over the US. If it was extraordinary in flight path, it would have been known. The fact that it was not explains quite a bit. And the fact that these illusions are rarely uncommon, despite popular assumption, just makes this a yawn.

The sole interest has been driven by 2 facts:
1) One media crew itself captured it and put it on in a major media market, and
2) That one media crew was in a position to give the illusion of a ballistic track

Since then that single source has been used and over-used, while other photography and videography is offered far, far less frequently.

Everyone has seen an aircraft give off the same trail. It was just illusion combined with that "eyewitness news" factor. If I had a penny for every media person who thought they had experienced something extraordinary, I'd be a billionaire. The media is filled with completely ignorant folk (especially when it comes to physics and engineering) or, worse yet, those who aren't ignorant, but know the story they can tell will get ratings.

I have my engineering background regularly insulted by the US media, and the more local, the more often the problem. I then have people coming up to me asking me questions and then disagreeing with the answers I give. And because my education and background, statistically, is 1 in 500 in the US, I'm not fighting truth, but sheer popularity versus a tiny fraction of those with the same knowledge.

The Moon Landings are a continuing plague, along with 9/11.

 

[LukeEl]

Arnold thought he was playing Missle Command on the Wii.

 

[Hot Mega]

Re: Visual illusion ...

The angle was not ballistic but horizontal flight and clearly an aircraft. But the angle the one, popular video was shot suggested it could be ballistic.

Given FAA, USAF and other radars had not ballastic or other track over the entire day, and no other unusual or untracked flight paths, it very much sounds like an aircraft.

All jets con under the same conditions. Assuming it's an aircraft, why wouldn't there be other contrails in the sky presumably from other jet aircraft?

 

[Member2019]

BTW, the exact flight was identified:
http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2010/11/unexplained_missile_us_airways.php

The great majority of people believe the world is not flat, because they have been told it is not flat. This is a continuing issue today, as much as it was thousand, two thousand and three thousand years ago. Aristotle-type observation is as dangerous today as it was then.

And it's hard to fight that viewpoint, when it massively outnumbers you, regardless of knowledge.

 

[Member2019]

Re: Visual illusion ...

All jets con under the same conditions. Assuming it's an aircraft, why wouldn't there be other contrails in the sky presumably from other jet aircraft?

There were! You see them every day. But the media isn't interested in showing those.

Again:
1) Caught by one TV media crew, and
2) In the perfect position at the perfect vector for the illusion

Other media captures showed a radically different trajectories.

 

[Hot Mega]

Re: Visual illusion ...

There were! You see them every day. But the media isn't interested in showing those.

Again:
1) Caught by one TV media crew, and
2) In the perfect position at the perfect vector for the illusion

Other media captures showed a radically different trajectories.

So Cal is home to 2 large airports and one being and international airport. My question was why is the sky void of any other contrails but that one at that period of time? Where are other contrails in the sky?

 

[Trident1]

You'd have to have a 3-stage "Big Daddy" loaded up with about 500 "E" series engines to get that kind of performance!

http://www.estesrockets.com/store/rockets/kits/skill-2/02162-big-daddytm.html

My guess is that some clown at Vandenberg pressed the wrong button. Oops!! :eek:

I had an Estes rocket once. I built it, painted it up, fired it from my back yard on a windy day and the last I saw of it, it was arcing it's way to the far side of the neighborhood like a SCUD.

 

[Hot Mega]

I had an Estes rocket once. I built it, painted it up, fired it from my back yard on a windy day and the last I saw of it, it was arcing it's way to the far side of the neighborhood like a SCUD.

Orthodox Extremist Terrarist!:violent:

 

[~~whimsy~~]

It was just my water bottle rocket. That's actually water trailing behind it. Yeah. I get hardcore with them.