posted 11-09-2010 02:55 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by hlbjr:
No one seems to know whose missile it is and the Pentagon so far is claiming it's not theirs.

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posted 11-09-2010 03:23 PM               

What appeared to be a rocket blasting into the skies off the southern California coast on Monday was probably just an approaching plane, a Harvard astronomer who tracks space launches says...

So what was it? Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer who tracks space launches at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, says it was probably an optical illusion caused by a plane.

"If it's coming over the horizon, straight at you, then it rises quickly above the horizon," he told New Scientist. "You can't tell because it's so far away that it's getting closer to you – you'd think it was just going vertically up," he says.

posted 11-09-2010 08:29 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by GoesTo11:
Supposedly the Navy issued a sea & air warning for the area

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posted 11-09-2010 08:31 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Greggy_D:
That looked nothing like a jet contrail.

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quote:

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That bright light is a solid fuel motor.

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posted 11-09-2010 09:33 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Greggy_D:
Contrails are thin and wispy.

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quote:

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If it was a plane, then why hasn't it been announced officially instead of "we don't know"?

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posted 11-09-2010 10:31 PM               

In both interviews he said it appeared to be spiraling.

The spiraling description sort of reminded me of Mike Melvill flying SS1.

posted 11-09-2010 11:45 PM               

I have seen contrails similar to that with my own eyes. Just last Saturday I saw something similar to that due east of Omaha. Indeed I wondered myself if it was some kind of "missile launch" when I first saw it, although the technical side of my brain dismissed it as nonsense as I don't recall hearing about any missile silos in Iowa. But as I continued to look, the jet at about 35,000 feet passed right overhead and the contrail itself got distorted like most every other contrail does.

posted 11-10-2010 01:12 AM               

If it was a missile launch it would have been visible for large distances in all directions and would have showed up on videos or photos from many different angles.

posted 11-10-2010 07:19 AM               

On Nov 2nd my wife was driving home from taking our grandson to the Zoo. It was late morning so low sun angles didn't come into play. She saw the same looking contrail in the East and was so surprised that she called me to ask if there was a launch. We've lived here for 19 years so we know a launch when we see it.

posted 11-10-2010 09:28 AM               

Before I left LA, I launched my latest model rocket. Did anyone see it?

posted 11-12-2010 12:20 PM               

It is not clear if it is the same helicopter or crew that filmed the event but is the same channel.

The tail rotor and boom assembly were separated from the body of the helicopter, but it was unclear if it happened in the air or upon impact.

Is this a coincidence or part of a bigger conspiracy?

posted 11-12-2010 12:35 PM               

As I was researching tonight (24 hours later), I realized that today's AWE808 current position (at around 4:50pm) was almost the same as it was the day of the incident. I quickly pulled up a Newport Beach webcam and found that (apparently) AWE808 was making an identical contrail, 24 hours later!

posted 11-12-2010 02:56 PM               

The only "evidence" for this having been a missile is what the imagery is being misinterpreted to show, much like the moon hoaxers who claim that perpendicular shadows and waving flags are proof the landings were staged.

posted 11-12-2010 03:55 PM               

Nonsense. I have been flying for 33 years and am currently a captain on the B-767. The aircraft is flying towards the camera at sunset. Behind it still illuminated by the sun is the far away part of the contrail spread out. The aircraft is flying east into darkness so the near part of the contrail is dark. The sun glints off of the fuselage and the hoaxers see the rockets red glare.

Think in 3D and see this in perspective from the ground looking up as the aircraft moves toward the camera and it is plainly a commercial airliner. On the long video you can even see just before the film stops small flashes of red and green - just the exact color of the red and green position lights.

Why does the film suddenly stop and not follow the so called missile to orbit or impact? Probably because the guy filming what he thought initially looked like an unusual event realized as the aircraft flew closer overhead that he was filming just that - a regular old jet not worthy of continuing to film.

I've seen this hundreds of times over the years at altitude. A beautiful optical illusion that by definition fools the eye into seeing something that is not really at first glance what it might appear to be. In fact I never thought it was anything other than an airliner (AW flight Honolulu to Phoenix) and wondered how anyone sees a "missile" from a plain old everday contrail.

But the hoaxers will not be denied. The same government that "faked" the moon landings seems to have accidently launched a "missile" the other day.

posted 11-12-2010 03:55 PM               

It just goes to show that even us veteran launch watchers can be mistaken.

posted 11-12-2010 09:08 PM               

The general opinion of a solid 85% of these leaders of tomorrow blew me away... Moon landings a government snow job to make the USA look better than USSR, never really happened, Apollo 13 is what blew it open as it showed that landing were way to difficult and they were caught! True with... Pearl Harbor and 9/11, a government smoke screen to get us into a war, government was totally aware of both in advance, different times same end result... stock market, etc.

I am telling you these were just some of the issues these young people do not believe were truthfully possible with out government's knowledge, involvement and conspiracy. This scared me and I was at a loss to debate with them as they were so adamant in defending there beliefs... this wasn't a joke.

To hear their points of view and there sincerity to the distrust of the government and the media, well, I was just confounded. I sat and listened to how intense there views were. I just had to walk away. And I asked their opinions on this!

Here in Tucson on the cable local access channel I have watched programs claiming that Davis Monthan AFB has a 12 story underground structure that services, 1- UFO's and 2- a Russian Air Force operations and 3- the good old UN black ops. (And I have heard this from a number of locals, too!) Oh, according to some, Tucson is a hotbed of strange happens in the night sky. Local news had some young lady on who monitors all the local public access surveillance cameras and she showed all her UFO videos on the news.

posted 11-14-2010 03:57 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
Miles O'Brien on Twitter

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posted 11-14-2010 04:07 PM               

1. iReport is a user-generated section of CNN.com. The stories in that section are not edited, fact-checked or screened before they are posted.

   If someone wanted, they could post a story to iReport claiming the "mystery missile" seen launching from Los Angeles was in fact Iron Man.

2. Miles left CNN in 2008. He is now the science correspondent for PBS Newshour.

posted 11-15-2010 06:17 PM               

Yes it is reader generated, under the CNN banner let's not forget.

I'm not saying it is a Chinese missile, but I am having a hard time blowing it off as a contrail as well.

I subscribe to more than a few Homeland Security groups (it is my background), and am not at liberty to discuss some specifics, but let's just say we shouldn't be too quick to blow iCNN off.