(CBS/AP) One expert says he has an answer for a video that appears to show an unexplained missile launch off the Southern California coast - there was no missile.
John Pike of the security analyst group globalsecurity.org said the video shot by a news helicopter owned by KCBS is an optical illusion. Pike said the video is of an airplane heading toward the camera and the contrail is illuminated by the setting sun. He said the object can't be a rocket because it appeared to alter its course.
FuzzQi
That would be so cool to see
gmilf
quote:
Originally posted by Paradox Lost
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a plane.
Also the place seems to be totally wrong for it to be an MM3 launch since they are silo based and only Vandenberg has the silos capable of doing that in California (and there would be holy hell raised if we had dug any new ones recently, the russians still keep an eye out for that sort of thing with their spy satellites).
The more I see the video it looks like a plane. The rockets motor light actually looks more like the glint off of a metallic surface and it also glints off the forward part of the body as well (a white color this time). It is also moving very slowly and the exhaust when you zoom in is way too placid to be that of a solid fuel burn (which means there is little velocity coming off of the plume source).
Lebezniatnikov
Got the answers, guys:
couch-potato
whatta a cougar ;)
shaw
My bad, guys. I just wanted to cast magic missile. :(
Fledz
quote:
Originally posted by shaw
My bad, guys. I just wanted to cast magic missile. :(
Just the one? I figured you'd be doing 4 or 5 at a time by now with 3d8 damage.
The17sss
:conf:
quote:
But Doug Richardson, the editor of Jane’s Missiles and Rockets, examined the video for the Times of London and said he was left with little doubt.
“It’s a solid propellant missile,” he told the Times. “You can tell from the efflux [smoke].”
Richardson said it could have been a ballistic missile launched from a submarine or an interceptor, the defensive anti-missile weapon used by Navy surface ships.
While I hold Jane's in the highest regard on most subjects, this guy I think is wrong. It looks very much like a solid fuel rocket, but that you can see the glint off of the metal surfaces in the video gives a sense of speed. There is just not enough speed as it appears to make it be a rocket.
