Analog SFF, June 2011 by Dell Magazine Authors

Author:Dell Magazine Authors
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Dell Magazines

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Department: THE ALTERNATE VIEW: THE GREAT MISSILE MYSTERY OF 2010

by Jeffery D. Kooistra

You remember the mystery missile launched off the coast of California, don't you? It happened back last November, offshore of Los Angeles, and it left this spectacular contrail in the sky that everyone could see. And yet no one knew who launched it, let alone why.

Or so we were led to believe.

The initial reports came from KCBS in Los Angeles and it sounded like ordinary straightforward reporting. When was the missile launched? Around sunset on Monday, November 8, 2010. Who saw it? A news helicopter spotted it and had the launch on video, and you could watch it online. Where was the launch? “. . . 35 miles out to sea, west of L.A. and north of Catalina Island.”

But who launched it? This is where the real mystery lay since “officials” were being “tight-lipped” about the whole thing. But that didn't stop rampant speculation on the part of people whom one might expect were either “in the know” or, at minimum, knowledgeable about missiles. For instance, CBS8 in San Diego showed the video to former U.S. Ambassador to NATO (also a former Deputy Secretary of Defense) Robert Ellsworth. He suggested it might be a test-firing of a submarine launched ICBM (one of ours), just to remind some folks over in Asia (read that as North Korea) that we can do things like that.

Now if you're me, the images in your mind that appear upon learning of this missile launch, but without having seen the video, are of an SLBM breaking through the surface of the water, firing the rocket engine, and swiftly arcing away into the sky, contrail billowing out behind. So it was more than a little bit disappointing to actually see the video and find out that there is no launch shown at all. There is a contrail, and there is an object at the front end of the emerging smoke that could be a missile, and there is a bright light flickering at the tail end of the contrail creator that might be from a rocket motor. But there isn't any actual connection of the contrail to a specific spot on the ocean from which the supposed missile was supposedly launched. But the contrail does connect with the horizon so it wasn't unreasonable to assert that the missile emerged from the sea at the spot where the ocean meets the sky.

It wasn't long after the story appeared that it became clear that either the military really had no idea who launched this alleged missile, or that they were selectively disavowing knowledge of specific aspects of said alleged missile in alleged sky. You know how this goes—the Navy says it isn't one of theirs but neglects to say they actually do know who it belongs to. Or Vandenberg AFB (which is northwest of L.A. and launches lots of stuff) says it hasn't launched any missiles in the area, but doesn't volunteer information about who actually did.

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