THIS IS OFF THE Y2K SUBJECT. About an hour ago my son (26) saw what looked to him like a comet, missle, he did not know what it was. It came down in the West, We are in the San Jose, CA area. It was large, and he was a little rattled by it. Could it be the 17 ton Science Satalite I heard about that was going to be crashed into the Pacific? Anyone out there know what it was. No news on TV yet.

-- Sandi Harris (SaHarris77@aol.com), January 18, 2000

Answers

Sandi,

The timing of your post suggests that your son saw the "comet" around 6-7 PM, PST.

But the article referenced by EXIT 316, refers to an exploding comet that was seen, or felt, or heard, in Alaska around 9 AM local time up there...

Doesn't sound like it was the same event.

Ed

-- Ed Yourdon (ed@yourdon.com), January 18, 2000.

This was most likely an antimissle defense test scheduled to take place tonight over the pacific.

glad to hear it went well...

Wonder why you would test it there,,,,who would shoot at us from accross the Pacific? Isn't everyone out there our friend? Didn't we bring them democracy? I mean inflation? I mean dollarization? I mean...

-- Gordon (g_gecko_69@hotmail.com), January 18, 2000.

Would you believe an exploding meteor!

http://news.excite.com/news/r/000118/20/science-meteor

-- EXIT 316 (exit316@kc-primary.net), January 18, 2000.

Mistress Harris

I think I remember the news saying this evenng that the Air Force was going to test a anti missle out in Calfornia. Could that have been what your son saw?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shakey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-- Shakey (in_a_bunker@forty.feet), January 18, 2000.

Our satellite TV reception is all messed up - can't get a lot of the western channels - just no data posted and the ones with our local channels are dead. Wonder if a satellite did go down - can't get through to Star Choice - busy signal.

-- Laurane (familyties@rttinc.com), January 18, 2000.

Missile Interceptor Misses Target

By Robert Burns
AP Military Writer
Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2000; 10:50 p.m. EST

WASHINGTON  In an apparent setback on the Pentagon's drive to develop a national missile defense, a prototype missile interceptor streaked into space Tuesday night in search of a mock warhead launched from an Air Force base in California but failed to hit the target, a Pentagon official announced.

"An intercept was not achieved for reasons unknown at this time," spokesman Air Force Lt. Col. Rick Lehner said.

The mock warhead was meant to simulate a nuclear attack on the United States, and a successful intercept would have provided a dramatic boost to the Pentagon's effort to show missile defense can work.

The interceptor rocket was launched from a U.S. Army missile range on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, about 20 minutes after the target missile lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 9:19 p.m. EST and headed over the Pacific Ocean.

Lehner said Pentagon officials would conduct an extensive review of the test data to determine why the interceptor missed the target. He said the first preliminary report would not be available for at least 48 hours.

The interceptor launch went off as planned, Lehner said. "What happened after it got into space we do not know," he said.

======================================== End

Ray Back to the top

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), January 18, 2000.

Ray, so that was launched 5:19 Pacific time? 20min travel... Sandi, does that sound right? A 5:19 launch, 8 to 20 (maximum) travel time...

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), January 18, 2000.

Son saw it at about 5:35-5:40. So it probably was the anti missle. Thanks everyone for the imput. Appreciate it very much.

-- Sandi Harris (SaHarris77@aol.com), January 19, 2000.

Used to see Vandenburg's launches from my location in the Mojave Desert, some 100 miles east. Until someone explain what was going on, it was a very unsettling show. But sometimes very spectacular, too.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), January 19, 2000.

Sorry I missed that. A few months back, we saw a night launch from up at Vandy all the way down here in San Diego. I'd been following the launch in the news and so knew what it was, but some of the neighbors were buggin' when they saw that big, bright plume heading into the night sky. Was very impressive...

Shame that the test failed, but as someone pointed out, this form of missile defense is a bit like trying to hit a bullet with another bullet. 'Taint nohow easy...

-- DeeEmBee (macbeth1@pacbell.net), January 19, 2000.