Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Vela6911

The Vela Incident (sometimes referred to as the South Atlantic Flash) was an as-yet unidentified double flash of light detected by a United States Vela satellite on September 22, 1979. It has been speculated that the double flash, characteristic of a nuclear explosion, was the result of a nuclear weapons test. A US presidential panel concluded that it "was probably not from a nuclear explosion, although [it cannot be ruled] out that this signal was of nuclear origin"[1], but others examining the data "including DIA, the national laboratories, and contractors reached a very different conclusion - that the data supported the conclusion that on September 22, 1979 Vela 6911 had detected a nuclear detonation."[2]