VIDEO...
Posted on 11/09/2010 8:05:31 AM PST by Gennie
(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.
Video here
"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.
Contact info for my Cally friends 576th Flight Test Squadron
Col. Richard Boltz, 30th Space Wing commander,
Point of Contact
30th SW Public Affairs
(805) 606-3595
DSN 276-3595
is there any confirmation of two other launches or was that just random extra worry tossed in for effect?
It was a missile launched from a Chinese submarine.
Their way of saying: ALL YOUR COUNTRY ARE BELONG TO US!
Megyn Kelly is going to have Chuck NAsh on shortly o FOX to get his perspective.
This is so disturbing on so many levels it’s frightening..
Taking this question at face value, what would be the point of such an exercise?
It would have to have a targeted audience even if it is as hard to hide as the moon, that would have to have a targeted audience from which to measure a reaction from. That would beg the question of who and why.
WHERE DID IT COME DOWN?
GOOD QUESTION!
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If I am reading that right that refers to THIS Evening....WTF??
Lapan said officials are talking to the Air Force, Navy and NORAD as well as civilian authorities who control and monitor air space.
“Right now, all indications are that there was not (Department of Defense) involvement in this,” Lapan said, adding that some object might have been launched by a private company.
I found it interesting to see that (military?) helicopter in the foreground in someHaven't seem any images/video out-takes posted yet of this 'report' have we?
btt
Do weather RADARs actually sample (rotate) only once every ten minutes or is that just the reporting interval?
You can put that speculation to bed...Trust me.
This was a missile launch, a large missile at that..right off our coastline, in which our own Pentagon as of 5 minutes ago, is still denying they know who launched it.
This is a very big event.
It was a Chinook. Dual rotor helo, troop carrier. Or filming platform....?
Understood, but NORAD tracks everything in the sky — and everything in orbit. It knows where this payload went.
8PM? to nearly 9PM?
Whats that about?
I wonder if this is tied in to what Rush was saying a day or so ago about something happening before Obama gets home, before January, to stop the GOP house from repealing a few things.
There’s a simiarity between this and Air Force One flying low over Manhattan right after Obama got into office.
Can’t put my finger on it. Is he prepping us for something we’ve never seen and don’t want to see?
Even if this turns out to be a private company that did this...this is a signal to the world that our own Government 19 hours later still has no idea what in the hell is going on....we are so screwed.
Yep. I saw a missile launch (satellite) from Wallops Island a couple of years ago at sunrise (from a distance of about 100 miles!) and it looked very much like the video. Big, big missile.
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