[Launch Alert] Mystery Launch - Part 4

[kd6nrp at earthlink.net]

The Defense Department may not know what Monday evening's event was because if a launch took place, it may not have been a military launch.

As I mentioned before, San Nicloas Island, which is very close to Los Angeles, is a known missile and rocket launch site. My understanding is that NASA scientific rockets have been launched on non-orbital flights from there in the past.

The NASA scientific rocket program (sounding rocket program) is run from NASA's Wallops Island, Virginia facility. The launches are conducted from Wallops Island, VA; White Sands, NM; Poker Flats, AK; and apparently San Nicolas Island, CA.

If NASA performed a launch from San Nicolas Island, it's entirely possible that only a handful of Navy personnel on the island knew about the event and it wasn't common knowledge throughout the Navy or Defense Department (or NASA for that matter).

The key is to do a thorough search for Notice To Airmen for the area in question for Monday. The military NOTAMs apparently are on one web site and the non-military NOTAMs are on other sites. If you do not search correctly, you may not find what you are looking for.

If you find a NOTAM, the organization conducting the operation and requesting the airspace closure is in the header.

At this point we have to many people speculating or opining based on incomplete information.

Brian Webb