Rocket/missile launch off Washington Coast? 6/4/2011 (pictures)

I am by no means claiming that this contrail was left by either a rocket or missile, only that it appears as such. I am NOT well versed though in interpreting these types of things so I thought I would turn to those that are!!

I was out driving this early evening (shortly after 6:00 pm PST) when I spotted an odd looking contrail in the sky. It looked much like some of the ones in the news lately, of suspected rocket launches. I want to stress that I did NOT see what caused this, only what was left behind. I had forgotten my phone so had to wait until I got home to take pictures. It was a bit more spread out by then, but still VERY visible against an otherwise blue sky (for once!!)

I know a lot will say this was simply from a plane. However, I have lived in this area for over 20 yrs and never seen anything like this before. It was going straight up....I saw it from numerous angles and it left no doubt. It was also MUCH larger than any contrail would normally be.

SO..since I know that if there aren't pictures, it never happened; here you go! (taken with a nikon D40)

I took a wide angle pic to give you scope of it's size:




Another, even wider shot that shows it trailing up and slightly to the north:



A close-up to try and show you the spiral affect. It was much more apparent when I first saw it:



ETA: I played with the contrast to get a better image:



Some orientation:

You are looking to the West, out towards the NW coastline of Washington State, very near the canadian border and Southern Vancouver Island.

One other interesting note. Just recently a HUGE floating missile radar platform was brought into position in roughly that same location. There were some conspiracy theories (talked about on the local radio) in regards to it actually being a launch platform. Some articles:

(this is an old one from last year that talks about the controversy around it)
Navy to visit Langly to talk about......

A 25-story seagoing monster may lumber into Everett this fall after being banished to Alaska in 2003 by determined protesters, including many from South Whidbey.

The Navy and the Missile Defense Agency need a deep-water port to work on their Sea-Based X-Band Radar platform (SBX), currently based in Adak, Alaska, in the Aleutian Islands

The $1 billion, 280-foot-tall mobile platform, operated by a mostly civilian crew of 80, is designed to detect incoming ballistic missiles. Its powerful radar can track a baseball-size object from a distance of 2,900 miles, according to the Missile Defense Agency.

Everett officials, community members from throughout the area, and eventually Rep. Rick Larsen, opposed the plan, concerned about health hazards and radiation that could hinder airport and emergency services communications.

Huge floating radar on its way to seattle

SEATTLE -- If you look out your window tomorrow and see a huge piece of military hardware floating in Puget Sound, don't be alarmed

The Missile Defense Agency's Sea-Based X-band Radar is on its way to Vigor Shipyard on Harbor Island in Seattle's Elliot Bay for maintenance work.

According to the last article, it shouldn't be operation right now....but I still think it is worth mentioning here.


Image of radar platform

reply to post by westcoast


That Sea-Based X-band Radar is a HAARP facility supposedly.

presscore.ca...

I believe one of the large military ships that protect that facility was last reported south of South Korea just a day or so before the Japan quake.

I think that it would only make sense that if it can detect a object it would be able to destroy said object, not saying it can keeps people and perhaps other governments off their case about it just "randomly" floating around the world and to me it looks like the spiral left from a rocket test upload.wikimedia.org...

Nevermind, can't figure out how to put up pictures.

reply to post by freakshowfatty


My thoughts exactly.

I wish I could have gotten pics right when I first saw it, for it was even more impressive. Even so....you can clearly see (I think) that is a large, spiral contrail going UP.

Very interesting....I'll be watching this thread to see what developes

reply to post by westcoast


It is too bad that you didn't have the phone from first sighting. Would have helped decipher the trail left behind.
There are those among us here on ATS that would readily explain the contrails you have posted, you need someone like Zorgon or Maytas to venture the conclusions. I will be watching the thread to see who shows up for a bit of critiquing of the event.
Thanks for sharing!!

So far I haven't found anything about it in the media. Can't believe I'm the only one who noticed it!

reply to post by westcoast


You're probably not the only who who noticed it. It most certainly is a missile contrail. I've seen many especially out of Edwards AFB in SoCal. You're not likely to see anything on the media about it as it most likely wasn't a live warhead of any kind. And even if it was, the target was most likely a practice/test target of some kind.

Hey, you don't report on every time soldiers in basic hit the range with their M16s do ya?

Good eye though. At this level of dispersion most people can't tell what it is.

reply to post by projectvxn


Well, the only reason I commented on it is because I have never seen it here before. There is a naval base SW of here in Oak harbor and ofcourse several other military bases further south down the coast...but the direction this came from was out over the San Juan Islands right by the Canadian border.

Just seemed very odd and out of place and unusuall for the area. I would be curious to know where it came from.

reply to post by westcoast


It probably happens more than you think. Sometimes the winds are so strong that it blows the contrail away very quickly and no one would even know..

It looks like a cloud blown through some crosswinds to me. I don't see anything special.

Originally posted by westcoast
reply to post by projectvxn

 

Well, the only reason I commented on it is because I have never seen it here before. There is a naval base SW of here in Oak harbor and ofcourse several other military bases further south down the coast...but the direction this came from was out over the San Juan Islands right by the Canadian border.

Just seemed very odd and out of place and unusuall for the area. I would be curious to know where it came from.

You might want to check Flight Tracker. I have a view of the area
in California where the "missile" was last year & see the same contrails
daily that everyone mistaked for a missile.

I have never seen anything like either, another great picture. This article is from 2009, and it mentions training off of the Pacific Northwest coast, but I am not sure if they are actually doing that, just thought it was relevant.

You may not realize it, but the Navy has been conducting warfare training exercises off the coast of Oregon, Washington and Northern California for decades, firing missiles and machine guns, dropping bombs and practicing crucial sonar detection of submarines.

Link

Until I read this article, I had no idea that the Navy did (live?) training exercises off the coast.