Who launched it?
Our best and brightest do not have a clue who launched a missile Monday night... This is really scary news. If our military did not launch it that means that another country may have launched a missile which was visible from the coast of California from a submarine... Of course the government is not discussing it because it SCARES THE CREPE OUT OF ME... Either our military has no clue as to what enters and leaves American airspace or they are not telling us that they made a big mistake.
I really want to know who is launching these missiles?
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/11/mystery-missile-launch-los-angeles-no-threat-national-security.htmlMilitary and aviation officials said Tuesday they don't know who may have launched a mysterious object spotted in the sky late Monday off the Southern California coast, but noted that whatever the projectile was, it did not pose a threat to national security.
A KCBS news helicopter spotted what appeared to be a missile traveling through the sky northwest of Catalina Island, about 35 miles west of Los Angeles.
Video posted online by the television station showed a luminous point hurtling through the sky followed by a long contrail.
Officials with the Defense Department, the Navy and the Air Force said they did not have any details on the object or its launch site. Pentagon officials said that initial indications were that the military was not involved.
"We are aware of the unexplained contrail reported off the coast of Southern California yesterday evening," according to a statement Tuesday from the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the U.S. Northern Command, which operates the U.S. and Canadian missile warning system. "At this time, we are unable to provide specific details but we are working to determine the exact nature of this event.
"We can confirm that there is no indication of any threat to our nation and we will provide more information as it becomes available," the statement said.
The Federal Aviation Administration didn't approve any commercial space launches in the area Monday, spokesman Ian Gregor said Tuesday.
"We're looking into this," he said.
[Updated at 9:55 a.m.: Naval Base Ventura County spokeswoman Teri Reid said Tuesday that the contrail seen off the Southern California coast on Monday did not originate at Naval Air Station Point Mugu.
"It didn't happen here," she said. "There was no firing on the range yesterday."
Nor did it come from Vandenberg Air Force Base, officials there said, adding that the facility's last launch was to put a satellite into orbit on Friday.]
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/11/09/california.contrails/Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- The Pentagon is unable to explain images of what appears to be a high-altitude rocket or missile launched off the coast of southern California at sunset Monday, officials said.
The Pentagon and the North American Aerospace Defense Command were investigating video shot by a news helicopter operated by CNN affiliate KCBS/KCAL showing an ascending orange-colored contrail high into the atmosphere, officials said. A contrail is the visible vapor trail behind airplanes or rockets traveling at high altitudes.
The Federal Aviation Administration, the Coast Guard, Navy, Air Force, and California Reps. Dana Rohrabacher and Jane Harman -- whose coastal districts are closest to the offshore contrails -- were at a loss to explain the images.
"The FAA ran radar replays of a large area west of Los Angeles based on media reports of the possible missile launch at approximately 5 p.m. (PT) on Monday. The radar replays did not reveal any fast moving, unidentified targets in that area," said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. "The FAA did not receive reports ... of unusual sightings from pilots who were flying in the area on Monday afternoon.
Mystery launch off California
"The FAA did not approve any commercial space launches around the area Monday," he added.
Col. Dave Lapan, a spokesman for the Pentagon, said Tuesday morning that authorities were "still trying to find out what that contrail off the coast of southern California was caused by, whether it was commercial, whatever reasons there might be."
"Sometimes we don't find these things out in a timely manner," he added. "Right now, all indications are that it was not [Department of Defense] involvement."
Lapan said the North American Aerospace Defense Command reported that it could not provide specific details, but that various agencies are trying to find out what happened.
"I don't know specifically what they are all doing. I just know they have been pinged and that we are talking to the FAA, we are talking to other parts of the U.S. government. We are trying to do everything we can to figure out if anybody has any knowledge of what this event may have been," Lapan said in off-camera comments to journalists.
"So far we have come up empty," he added.