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Mystery missile launch off Southern California

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 6:39 pm
by Aero
An as yet unidentified missile launched last night (11/8/10) during the Los Angeles rush hour was caught on video by a traffic helicopter camera person. The news report showing the video is here.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/ ... 6716.shtml
Scroll midway down the page then wait for the video to load.

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 6:56 pm
by Giorgio
This is intriguing.

I doubt it was a military test as military do not like to show off their tests to civilians.

Unless it was a military test from a chineese sub out of LA coast........

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 7:39 pm
by Betruger
Don't know if it's mentioned in the above video, but it seems that there was another one of these last year as well.
http://hobbyspace.com/nucleus/?itemid=24960

Also
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=23260

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 9:08 pm
by DeltaV
Sea launched Polywell test.

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 12:00 am
by krenshala
As Betruger's first link mentions, the contrail is probably from a high-altitude jet liner flying in the general direction of the camera. I've personally seen some odd looking contrails before from aircraft passing overhead at dusk. They are quite interesting, until you figure out its a passenger plane. ;)

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 1:12 am
by Aero
Betruger wrote:Don't know if it's mentioned in the above video, but it seems that there was another one of these last year as well.
http://hobbyspace.com/nucleus/?itemid=24960

Also
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=23260
Those videos and stills are all of the subject event. Where did "last year" come from?

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 1:31 am
by GW Johnson
I could not get the link posted here to the video to load correctly, but I did see this video earlier today. It really did look like a solid propellant rocket flying at sunset lighting conditions. I've seen a lot of them, in all sorts of conditions. What I saw in the video was no jet aircraft contrail.

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 2:47 am
by djolds1
GW Johnson wrote:I could not get the link posted here to the video to load correctly, but I did see this video earlier today. It really did look like a solid propellant rocket flying at sunset lighting conditions. I've seen a lot of them, in all sorts of conditions. What I saw in the video was no jet aircraft contrail.
A privately owned fast mover on reheat is one possibility. Would explain what appears to be rocket flame in the video.

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 4:46 am
by KitemanSA
Looks like an airliner to me.

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 5:07 am
by Betruger
Aero - IIRC I'd read it in the Spectrum article. Maybe also mentioned in the NSF thread. I think it's settled now, though.

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 8:15 am
by Giorgio
KitemanSA wrote:Looks like an airliner to me.
Look at 00:45 sec, you can see the flame at the top of the plume.
Doesn't look an afterburner flame at all to me, but than it might depend on the way they video was taken.

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 9:14 am
by Betruger
That does look more like a flame than a glint of the Sun, but not so conclusively.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 8024652983

My money's on a contrail, not a rocket.

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 3:26 pm
by KitemanSA
Sun glint. Looks so much brighter since the photographer is in dusk's shadow and the plane isn't. His camera iris must be cranked pretty open due to the dim light at his level.

JMNSHO!

Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2010 5:03 am
by GW Johnson
If you carefully examine the viewing angle from the helicopter in the videos on the internet, that camera is looking SW. Based on relative shadow and light, the illumination directions on the plume pretty well rule out a west-to-east course with a direction change to NE-bound. This means the explanation of an optical illustion of an eastbound airliner contrail headed toward Arizona is crap.

On the other hand, those same light / shadow proportions on the plume are definitely consistent with a steeply rising plume bending over more horizontal toward the NW. So also is the pulsating "spark" at the head of the plume visible later footage in the videos as the sunlight fades. This is just about what the tailpipe flame of an aluminized-propellant rocket would look like, viewed from more-or-less astern on a NW-trending course.

To me, the illumination directions and the observed size as viewed from "some miles away" point toward a large-sized aluminized-propellant rocket vehicle rising near vertically initially, and later trending more horizontal toward the NW. This is no amateur "toy" launched from some small boat.

This is something big, most likely launched from a large craft, most likely a sub. Whose sub? I cannot say. Surfaced or submerged? I cannot say. Why was it launched off Long Beach Harbor? I cannot say.

There is a conspiracy theory floating around now on the internet that claims this was a missile launched from a Chinese "Jin-class" sub. The same conspiracy article claims it was a 7000 mile range missile that impacted in China. That's patently ridiculous because China is more than 7000 miles from California. But, that same conspiracy article says the missile went NW from the launch location. Hmmmm. Interesting, no?

Whatever it was, it was no airliner contrail, no optical illusion, and no amateur rocket launch. But the actual truth is being covered up. For whatever reason.

Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2010 11:04 am
by Betruger
Did you look at the evidence for last year's launch, if there was enough to speculate on that one too?