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.
Howabout “The Hunt for Blue November” ~ with reference to the blue UFO that spent last Wednesday evening above the Satellite Service complex in Northern Virginia.
Yes I did....and the private rocket corporations in France, Japan, and India.
Those guys don't do ANYTHING without FAA NOTAMs and agreements with the DEPT of state. When the CAL Tech rocket geeks go out to the desert flats, they have a SATCOM phone talking to a missile alert officer in Russia "just in case". They have to get ALOT of approvals to launch anything close to exo-atmospheric.
/......and 35 miles is too damn close for amateurs in one of the busiest flight boxes in the world. Their would have been FAA NOTAMs a week before, and a State Department approval with other nuclear powers of any "research" or "experimental" or "enthusiast" missile of this size.
....doesn't pass the smell test with me. Im still betting on an SLBM, IRBM, SRBM, or ICBM on a container ship. That plumb was WAY to big to be an old "FROG" "Lance", or "Honest John-type" short range tactical missile. That thing was BIG. I wish the video showed a 1st stage separation....we can narrow down the missile type with the separation of stages.
It means they're cooking up a TWA 800 center fuel tank story.
As I got up this morning they were saying they were bringing him home early due to "ash".
And North Korea ~ they have submarines ~ they have missiles ~ and they don’t care what we think.
Look at the video man...Have you never witnessed a missile launch? We've seen *lots* of Vandenberg launches live, and this is *exactly* what this was.
Shep mentioned a few minutes ago a piece he was reading from an online magazine- the author said even if this WASN’T a national security problem- it’s fast becoming one. A missile is launched off the coast of LA into the PAcific and 20 hours later no military spokesman can tell us anything about it.
That doesn’t present a very good picture to us or the world.
Lit aircraft contrail with fire coming out the back? Come on, man. Even the Pentagon is not denying it was a missile.
Watch the earliest videos. They show the vehicle propagating the contrails.
Dragnet2,
They have no explanation because they are no different to any one else observing the footage. It looks like a ballistic missile launch, but it is widely know amongst aviation enthusiasts and photographers that aircraft contrails can and do exhibit the characteristics of a ballistic missile launch. It is all about perspective.
Go onto the Above Top Secret conspiracy website and you’ll see people posting images claiming of another missile launch from earlier this month. The contrails are pictured starting from the horizon and up into the sky. It is all about perspective when observing such images. Aircraft contrails due to perspective and light source can exhibit characteristics of a ballistic missile.
#7 ROTFLMAO!!
Could be from a Chinese Sub, a Russian one, a British sub, or a french one,,not to mention the US Navy.
I wondered if it could be a North Korean sub trying to scare us with Obama out of the country.
No kidding. Whatever this was, one thing is for sure, our reaction to it (or lack of) just broadcasted boatloads about our vulnerability to our enemies.
Maybe.
But this doens’t look like a contrail to me; those are white and more narrow, uniform.
This looks like a missle (and yeah, I’ve seen lots of missles, flying above, below, and from me).
This was either:
1. US test,
2. Chicoms (or whomever) showing us what they can do, but in a manner not to cause nuke attack (with a course AWAY from the USA)
3. A home enthusist off shore thinking no one would notce miles off shore
Really. A Petty Officer? All by himself? With a launch key in each hand and 10 foot arms?
Come on.
The continental shelf is rather narrow on the West Coast (as compared to the East Coast). There are also canyons hither and yon so you can get a good sized sub pretty close ~ if you wanted to.
By the way - WHERE IS IT NOW?
We are lucky China or Russsia didn't put California into the pacific ocean.
To be blunt, I don't give a damn what "they" say.
This was a missile launch my friend, and a *large* missile at that.
Thank you! :)
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