Strange missle launch over Mojave desert this morning

Okay all you Space buffs I need to find out what I saw this morning. As I was driving East on Hwy 58 just outside of Mojave, California at about 6:30 am, my buddy and I were headed pretty much due East and it was clear all the way to the horizon, sunrise only 20 min. away, brightening up, we saw what to me looked like a missle contrail as its exiting the upper atmosphere, wide, misty contrail with a slightly denser contrail in the middle. The "missle" was a shade darker blue of the sky as was the contrails and it suddenly appeared at about 10 o'clock position right above the highway, pointing, from our view point, 80 to 90 deg. up, then about 5-10 sec later it dipped down for about 5 to 10 sec then back up and disappeared completely.

Now before anyone says anything, I lived in Lompoc Calif for 10 years and Vandenberg AFB is right next to Lompoc and everybody in Lompoc for any length of time, including myself, have seen multiple missle launches from Vandenbergs launch pads, not directly but they go right up over the pacific and the SLC's are only about 10 miles from town. I know what a missle launch looks like and this looked extremely similar if not the same as the last legs of a missle launch as its leaving the atmosphere.

So my question is does anybody know of or can find a link to any missle launches East of Mojave, past Edwards, could even have been in Nevada, this morning? I am an avid space fan but am at a loss to explain this event.

Usually when a missle launch happens, you will see the whole contrail, this did not have a launch contrail from the ground, it looked like almost as if the launch happened in flight. Very strange, but cool! Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

reply to post by Springheel Jack


Hi two months ago I was headed to vegas on I15 east of barstow, almost to nevada maybe an 3/4 hr from primm or so , when we saw a missle launch coming from the north east.
It looked to be a multi stage vehicle too, as the exhasut plume almost quit at one point and started back up again. It did something very similar to what you described, it looked like it dipped a bit and headed back up.
It was most certainly a rocket or missle of some sort. I was surprised to see it coming out of nevada.


It was fast too it was out of site in just a few seconds.

I grew up in Vegas and use to go out by the dry lake beds in Barstow and Boulder City to watch the Model rockets being launched. Is it possible you saw a model rocket going up? There are some big one's that look like a real missle/rocket...

36 Foot model rocket


youtube video

reply to post by Alchemst7


absolutley not a model

And the direction i saw it come from was the in the direction of the nevada test site.

Something being tested at/by the China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center? Maybe even a rocket/missile launch from a UCAV, a project being tested?

I'm sorry I missed the show.

The model rockets can look very real and there is a launch site east of Las Vegas, and also near Jean, Nevada.

www.tripolivegas.com...

They can go as high as 100,000 feet in the air and they look just like a missle, at least they did to me. I saw one a few years ago when I was driving near Alamo, Nevada. and I stopped to ask the lady at the local gas station store if she knew anything about what I just observed. She laughed at first and said it was "Aliens from Area 51"; I told her that I was a native and a local, and then I laughed at her. Then she told me about the model rockets and when I checked it out, it was true, they are really kind of cool.

I was born and raised in the Las Vegas area and I used to look for experimental aircraft and watch them test weapons near the test site. There was always something interesting to see over the desert sky.

reply to post by punkinworks


Sounds similar indeed. The weird part to me though was the fact that the exhaust plume, contrail, had no ground to altitude origin, nothing. It was like it had been launched at high altitude, high enough that the exhaust had that wide misty refraction to it, the same as when a rocket is just leaving the atmosphere. Usually you will see the remnants of the entire contrail up to the point it enters orbit. Just an interesting sighting for sure.

I definitely dont think this was a model rocket, like I said, no exhaust plume from the ground to altitude of sighting at all. And the fact that it was heading up then down then up again. I dont have a clue!


It could very well have been some kind of test, of what, I again have no clue. Cnina lake was directly North of my location, as I was driving into the sunrise , China lake would've been out my drivers side window, although there is Edwards AFB that I pass not 10min from where I was. But it couldve been something in Nevada since it was right in front of me looking East.

[edit on 16-10-2009 by Springheel Jack]

You are not alone! I happened to have run across this right now.
Another witness, sadly still not me. lol

East...east...could it have been this? Didn't realize that maybe a high enough altitude could give a view over western states...hmmmm



info

more info of same

edit to add re Hera altitude
300 km (185 miles)
source


more edit to add...I forgot that Hera is a Greek goddess, Queen of Heaven, but can be jealous and vengeful...I guess fitting for this rocket

[edit on 18-10-2009 by desert]

[edit on 18-10-2009 by desert]

Hey, thanks Desert! I bet you are right on with this! It was quite a distance away I imagine that it was this missile test. Good work Desert, and yep it happened at the right time too. Now we know. Thanks to all who posted trying to figure this out and a star for you Desert! Good job everybody!