Don't Call the Police, It's Just a Missile
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VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, CA - DECEMBER 3: (FILE PHOTO) An unarmed Minuteman II intercontinental ballistic missile launches December 3, 2001 from Vandenberg Air Force Base. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Lee A Osberry Jr./USAF/Getty Images)
No cause for alarm -- that missile streaking across the early morning sky was unarmed and headed 4,200 miles away from California.
The Air Force successfully launched an unarmed Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missile Monday morning from the California coast to an area in the Pacific Ocean.
Lt. Geoffrey Raymond said the ICBM was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 3:01 a.m. Monday and carried three unarmed re-entry vehicles to their targets near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The missile, configured with a National Nuclear Security Administration Test Assembly, was launched under the direction of the 576th Flight Test Squadron.
The Air Force said the launch was an operational test to check the weapon system's reliability and accuracy, and the data will be used by United States Strategic Command planners and Department of Energy laboratories.
Such rocket tests in past years have been visible over most of Southern California, and occasionally as far east as Tucson, Ariz. The rockets can cause a glowing exhaust trail that can get blown into strange shapes by upper- atmosphere winds.
In addition, unburned fuel dumped into the atmosphere can form a colorful glow in a dark sky as sunlight reaches the upper atmosphere. These strange occurrences have triggered thousands of calls to police switchboards in years past.
