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posted by n1 on Monday November 09 2015, @08:08AM   Printer-friendly
from the tech-demo dept.

On Saturday Nov 7th, my wife calls me frantically screaming to run outside and look in the sky. She thought she saw a meteor or something blowing up in the atmosphere over San Diego. I walk outside and see it and told her it was a rocket launch, possibly from a military exercise since the typical launches from Vandenburg AFB are more distant. She wasn't convinced, even though I am a rocket scientist (yes really!) and bet her $100. I won that bet...

A mysterious bright light in the sky has sent Californians into panic - only for it to be explained soon afterwards.

The light was spotted travelling quickly over Orange County and neighbouring areas late on Saturday, leading to fevered speculation online over its origin.

[...] On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said night-time flights to and from Los Angeles International (LAX) would avoid flying over the Pacific Ocean to the west of the airport, the second busiest in the US.

The FAA did not disclose the reason for the change, but indicated that military activity in the area would take place between Friday and Thursday.

Media in California confirmed that the light came from an unarmed Trident missile fired from the USS Kentucky navy submarine.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34759177
YouTube video https://youtu.be/yu7mNmqJJ10


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  • (Score: 2) by moondoctor on Monday November 09 2015, @11:20AM

    by moondoctor (2963) on Monday November 09 2015, @11:20AM (#260721)

    I was driving in NW Montana a few years ago and saw a fireball in the sky with a huge trail of smoke appear to rise through the atmosphere and into space. Looked very much like footage of a rocket launch. Took a few minutes to climb out. It appearred to be *very* far away, possibly hundreds (thousands?) of miles and my view was to the WNW. Does anyone here know if it's possible I was seeing a rocket launch? Can't picture it being anything else, but I've never seen it before or since.

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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by useless on Monday November 09 2015, @02:33PM

    by useless (426) on Monday November 09 2015, @02:33PM (#260769)

    It was the reflection of Jupiter in swamp gas, now move along.

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Monday November 09 2015, @02:46PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday November 09 2015, @02:46PM (#260773) Journal
    Could be. There are a few rocket launches from Kodiak [wikipedia.org] and a handful of them would sort of go in that direction. Or it could be a bright meteor.
    • (Score: 2) by moondoctor on Saturday November 21 2015, @03:47PM

      by moondoctor (2963) on Saturday November 21 2015, @03:47PM (#266209)

      Thanks! That answers my question. Hard to say 100% (could have been a bug in my eye!) but it really looked just like a rocket launch on tv or the movies, just in my windshield. Alaska would be dead the right direction and proper distance.

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 09 2015, @04:26PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 09 2015, @04:26PM (#260811)

    One night while stargazing, we saw a rocket engine fire up to do whats called an "transfer orbit burn". I got a good look at it with my 20X50 binoculars, it was awesome.