Russia Confirms Failed Missile Launch Caused Norway's Light Show 236
Ch_Omega writes "According to this article over at BarentsObserver, the giant spiral seen on the sky over Norway Wednesday morning local time has been confirmed to be the result of a failed Russian missile launch. Russia now confirms that '...the missile was launched from submerged position in the White Sea by the nuclear submarine Dmitri Donskoy. Studies of the telemetric data from the launch show that the two first stages of the missile functioned as they should, and that a technical malfunctioning occurred during the third stage.' There is also an article on this at The Daily Mail."
Well paint me surprised: (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well paint me surprised: (Score:5, Funny)
My god, it's worse than I thought.
Re:Well paint me surprised: (Score:5, Funny)
More interestingly, why were they shooting this off next to Norway? Maybe they were hoping it was so cold outside all the Norwegians would be inside and wouldn't notice...
What exactly was Russia shooting at?
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As the previous thread almost managed to show, perhaps at confusion stemming from "the second coming...of Odin"?
Russia probably doesn't like pope very much, after all...
Re:Well paint me surprised: (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well paint me surprised: (Score:5, Insightful)
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They hate us for our big-box retailers.
Re:Well paint me surprised: (Score:5, Informative)
Nearly all of the unfrozen sea that Russia has easy access to in the north is also relatively close to Norway (purple is the extent of sea ice):
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/NEWIMAGES/arctic.seaice.color.000.png [uiuc.edu]
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Russia was shooting at Kura polygon on Kamchatka. Of course, one would want to shoot from north-west: the rocket flies the longest distance possible, nearly exclusively over Russian territory (this time it seems to be launched from neutral waters), and mainly over polar seas and eternally frozen lands. Given that the Bulava rocket was never built correctly (not for sea launches, at least), not flying it above heavily populated areas seems like a good idea...
Re:Well paint me surprised: (Score:5, Funny)
Well, duh. UFOs, obviously. The significant question is: what sort of exotic defence did they use to cause that response? Warp shields? Singularity field?
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Exactly. In Belgian news it was described as a missile which could travel 8000km and drop 9 atomic bombs.
It's "inducing fear", distracting the public from something else (why show off their new "worlddestroying" missiles? And if they've tested 8 times before, like I read somewhere, why was it only now as visible? My family has a strong military history and I've always been told "the [milita
Re:Well paint me surprised: (Score:5, Informative)
as far as I know being able to launch a missile while the sub is submerged would be a huge leap forward in the nuclear arms race.
This video [youtube.com] seems to show underwater missile launches have been done for quite a while now...
Underwater aircraft launch of F-15 (Score:5, Funny)
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12u-ppn_Q3M [youtube.com] --- Japanese Submarine Aircraft Carrier
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_aircraft_carrier [wikipedia.org]
Re:Well paint me surprised: (Score:5, Interesting)
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The Typhoon class is able to fire ICBMs while fully submerged from any of its 20 silos. The system creates a huge gas-bubble over the launch-tube in which a propelling charge drives the rocket to the surface, then it ignites its rocket engine and continues as any ICBM.
Recent development would be the RSM-56 Bulava, a Topol M-based marine ICBM, its test launches were performed from Typhoon class submarines while fully submerged. Videos of a Typhoon class launching a missile while submerged have been around fo
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as far as I know being able to launch a missile while the sub is submerged would be a huge leap forward in the nuclear arms race.
This video [youtube.com] seems to show underwater missile launches have been done for quite a while now...
In France, all ICBMs are actually SLBM (Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile) since all the land-based missile launchers have been dismantled in the late 90s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strike_Force_(France) [wikipedia.org] I don't remember a test ending in a huge spinning spiral though. If this is a secret program, I guess they're doing it wrong...
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as far as I know being able to launch a missile while the sub is submerged would be a huge leap forward in the nuclear arms race.
It was, when the US and USSR both achieved it in 1960. [wikipedia.org]
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Awww...and I was hoping it was a rickroll.
Re:Well paint me surprised: (Score:5, Informative)
Have you been living in a cave the past 50 years? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UGM-27_Polaris [wikipedia.org]
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29 seconds.
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What I want to know is can we hire them for the 4th of july?
Back in the day... (Score:5, Interesting)
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There was once a time that Russia would have just kept schtum. How many UFO reports are due to similar failed firings prior to the end of the Cold War?
Hopefully none because people had worked out what this was as soon as it happened.
Everyone without a tinfoil hat knew it was a failed rocket of some kind.
Re:Back in the day... (Score:5, Funny)
Everyone without a tinfoil hat knew it was a failed rocket of some kind.
Thats because the tinfoil hats block that kind of mind control.
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Hah! That's what THEY want you to think!
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Rats, my master plan is out! Minions, assemble, we have to strike now!
Tinfoil is a plot!!!11!eleventeen (Score:3, Funny)
Sure, that's what the Government and their Illuminati masters want you to believe. So you're wearing roughly a metallic hemisphere on your head, right? Sure, it reflects mind control rays coming from upwards and back, but what about rays coming from the front, hmm? Right, those get reflected and focused, like by a telescope mirror, inside your brain. And do you think that the proliferation of WiFi hotspots and police radars and whatnot at ground level is just a coincidence? Hmm? Wake up, people! ;)
Re:Back in the day... (Score:5, Funny)
In Soviet Russia, UFO reports you!
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None - because we didn't have slashdot back then
Placement (Score:2)
Re:Placement (Score:4, Informative)
Because White Sea is free of ice year round. For that reason most major submarine bases and shipyards are located on its coast. Most of Russia's coastline is devoid of infrastructure needed to support naval operations or whatever they still have left.
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It was happening at quite high altitude, visible from vast distance, so it wasn't really at the doorstep of Norway, probably.
Plus Russia doesn't have exactly that much of a coastline as the first glance at many typical maps would suggest - the northern regions are quite close to the north pole, so they end up heavily "distorted" in certain map projections.
Re:Placement (Score:5, Interesting)
Worse, Russia doesn't really have a lot of ice-free coastline, especially during the winter. And the few they do have can easily be blocked from the open sea by NATO countries.
It was one of the big issues during the cold wars, afaik even one of the core reasons for the Vietnam war.
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even one of the core reasons for the Vietnam war.
Okay now I am curious, I thought Vietnam was mainly a China vs US gig? How would chinese control of Vietnam help the USSR access north polar waters?
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I thought Vietnam was mainly a China vs US gig?
Can't help with the reason for why it's relevant to USSR's coastal access, but in 196x China wasn't exactly in a position to sponsor a proxy war, having just taken a bit of a misguided jump [wikipedia.org]. The proxy war was still between the USA and USSR.
Re:Placement (Score:5, Interesting)
North Vietnam was backed primarily by the Soviets, not the Chinese. In fact, shortly after the end of the Vietnam War, China and Vietnam got into a shooting match over the Vietnamese presence in Cambodia.
The Soviets needed more warm-water ports, and Vietnam was willing to provide this. This also put a significant portion of the world's shipping lanes within striking distance of Soviet forces. The domino theory may have been an overblown fear, but a significant base of operations in that part of the world is all that the USSR needed to make a serious nuisance in case things heated up.
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The Soviets needed more warm-water ports, and Vietnam was willing to provide this.
So, whatever became of it ? Did they build it and only have a few minor vessels in it ? Did they fall from grace after the vietcong victory ? Did all the traffic lanes cease shipping in fear ?
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You're not thinking of Korea maybe? North Korea and China were close buddies. North Vietnam was better friends with the Soviets, and never really got on well with China.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietnamese_War [wikipedia.org]
The tensions between Vietnam and the Khmer Rouge that led to Vietnam invading Cambodia was a chance for the Soviets and the Chinese to have a little war of their own.
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Were being the operative word. North Korea at the moment shows that China will trade with absolutely anyone, but the military on the border and the acceptance of refugees shows that they think North Korea is as much of a basket case as the rest of the world does (actually more so because they have a lot of escaped people that can provide proof).
no, in fact china was hostile to vietnam (Score:5, Informative)
at first after world war 2 there was an idealism in the air that marxism/ communism would result in cooperation between russia and china. but this quickly fell victim to the usual imperialistic instincts of such vast empires. there were massive military buildups along the chinese-russian border, over stupid petty disagreements like tiny useless islands in the amur river (border between russia and manchuria). american intelligence got wind of this and sensed an opportunity: the tension between russia and china was one of the reasons nixon's about face on china and sudden seeking of warm relations with china at the time made so much strategic sense: drive a wedge between powerful enemies of the usa
so when vietnam aligned itself with russia, it was sort of china's version of the united states' experience with cuba: a tiny southern country right on its border having the audacity to fall the influence of a powerful enemy. in fact, after the vietnam war, china had its own version of the bay of pigs (on a much larger scale): china and vietnam went to war
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Vietnamese_War [wikipedia.org]
100,000 vietnamese civilians were killed by the chinese in that 1979-1980 war. but the chinese lost this war badly, and chinese propaganda has pretty much covered the whole event up and erased the war from chinese history books. because it was embarrassing how badly china lost. to this day, chinese veterans of that war are officially shunned and denied benefits or even recognition
you have to admire the vietnamese: they kicked out a major colonial power, the french. then they took on a world superpower, the americans. and finished it off by repulsing the regional power, china. in one long sustained 30-40 year very bloody struggle, the vietnamese kicked everyone's asses
vietnam deserves much respect, they have suffered heavily for their rightful independence
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Russia's coastline isn't that open when you look at it.
1. North - Covered with ice during most of the year, including now, so testing here is not an option.
2. East - Would take forever to get there from the sub bases on the west coast (You'd either have to go north and stay under the ice for weeks, or go south down the Atlantic, around Africa, and through the Indian ocean), so also not an option.
3. West - This is the coast of the Baltic sea (And it shares coasts with Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and maybe Norw
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North - Covered with ice during most of the year, including now, so testing here is not an option.
You say that as though it should be surprising. You do realise it's winter in the northern hemisphere, I hope? Kind of like saying "It's barbecue weather in Australia!" When is it ever not?!
Nuclear Armageddon or Computer Glich? (Score:3, Interesting)
So happy not to be living in the cold war. Today, I like to think it's harder for fictional missiles to start WW3. Fewer false positives. Of course, here the missile was actually launched...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov [wikipedia.org]
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OTOH, it is a bit comforting, in a way, that if the nuclear exchange were to happen, it would actually look quite...nice ;)
(after all even if only few percent of the rockets would malfunction in similar fashion, there would lots of such sights, without hundreds of rockets flying)
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For ballistic missile launches, other nations are notified well in advance. In this case, Britain, France, and the US were certainly notified, and others may have been provided some level of notice as well.
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[citation needed]
Seriously though, I'm really curious where you heard something like that. I'd like to read up on these sorts of procedures.
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At a bare minimum a NAVTEX message was sent [frisnit.com] warning of a rocket launch. Someone clever in the ways of google maps or google Earth care to map that polygon?
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The Norwegian military have stated (in Norwegian media) that they did know about the launch beforehand, but did not want to say too much, to not reveal observational capabilities. My guess is they were not important enough to recieve official warning, but were "allowed" to find out about the launch.
bloody nonsense. (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, but this is Slashdot (Score:2)
There is indeed a great deal going on which we cannot see, but this event didn't fit the patterns of any previous UFO/energetic phenomenon I've seen or read about. It did, however, fit the pattern of a rocket launch gone wrong. Watch the videos on the original news site again. I think the spectacular photographs were not accurately reporting the event as it would have been eye-witnessed. They looked like long exposures to me, and probably were in order to get that level of light. A spinning firework wo
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What happened that you are back to calling us muggles, rather than beseeching us to join you in your enlightenment and awareness?
Seriously? --It was an incident yesterday where I had to deal with a person in authority making lives difficult with a degree of fortified stubbornness which bordered on mental retardation.
Honestly, I'm FAR from perfect. I know that. I find myself confused by how pissed off I can get with humanity even as I walk around heartbroken by watching people almost seem to enjoy making
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He's been modded funny - he must be!
Bad fuel mix (Score:2, Funny)
Given the out of control spiral pattern maybe Vodka wasn't the best choice for rocket fuel even if it was greener.
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Damn pretty effect, though.
If they can repeat the behavior on a smaller scale (Score:4, Insightful)
This is a really cool new kind of fireworks. I've never seen one do this before.
Re:If they can repeat the behavior on a smaller sc (Score:2)
Looks familiar [youtube.com].
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This doesn't work so easily on a smaller scale.
The reason it works for the rocket in question is because it's rather big, has lots of propellant, which it ejects at a fairly high velocity relative to its rate of rotation (spinning), which coupled with the fact that it's rather high up allows for a large vapor trail.
If you compare that to existing consumer glass fireworks which -does- have spinners.. and I'll link to a little home-made thing (don't try this at home, etc.)... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7 [youtube.com]
At least it wasnt a nuke plant going up... (Score:5, Insightful)
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A lot because the winds were unfortunate, and we had a rainy day that moment.
Still bad, but needed nuance in your post.
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A missile that hypnotizes you (Score:3, Funny)
Maybe they want to create a weapon that hypnotizes you. And once you are hypnotized they recruit you hahaha
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Wouldn’t a Hypnotoad hailstorm [youtube.com] be more effective?
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If you wanted to see Magnolia, I recommend not to click the above link. It may well be the biggest spoiler ever. Sorry, forgot about that.
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Is swirly thing above or below orange?
Total Freak Out (Score:2, Insightful)
Imagine though how freaked out one would be walking outside and suddenly seeing a giant spinning spiral with a sci-fi-ish blue trail passing through the middle. Based on the youtube vids I saw, one could actually perceive the spinning motion.
And double freaked out if walking out of a movie theater after seeing a scary movie. That's just one goddam weird pattern.
Aliens from outer space (Score:3, Funny)
"Missile launch" is just a coverup.
Norway's version of "It was just a weather balloon".
ITS OKAY, FOLKS (Score:2, Funny)
Russia's just launching missiles from nuclear subs, that's all.
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Yup, only evil countries do that. But hey, I knew my country (UK) was evil already :)
Underwater launches (Score:2, Interesting)
While reading through suprisingly ignorant comments on _new_ tech of launching an ICMB from submerged position (this is slashdot, we are all supposed to be armchair warriors with underdeveloped muscle tissue and oversized brains filled with data on weaponry we would never, ever see unless its on youtube) and replies of ppl putting the record straight I just want to add this little nugget of information here:
In 199something (don't remember, but it was a crappy year in Russia - lost of bad news, the story got
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> So all in all - ICBMS from under water = old news.
49 years old, to be exact.
What happened to Russia? (Score:2)
Wheres the beloved monolithic wall of paranoid state security? The day after the event and they're all "sorry guys, we screwed up one of our missile tests. Here are the details."
Unless its all a cunning Russkie ruse...
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Obvious when you think about it. (Score:4, Funny)
You are at a party relaxing and enjoying yourself. At some point you lose track of your surroundings and time. When you come to, you remember being junk-kicked in your man business some 180 times. You're pretty sure in was someone you met at the party by the name of Ivan Jnkkckr. After a bit of investigative work you track down Ivan's number from another guest that attended the party. Ivan denies junk-kicking you in your man business.
After further investigation and conversations with other party attendees, you come into possession of some cellphone video. The videos show quite Ivan's foot spinning in a spiral pattern while junk-kicking you in your man business some 180 times. You confront Ivan Jnkkckr with multiple videos showing from multiple angles the relentless assault on your now decimated nuts. Ivan then promply admits that he spiral junk-kicked your nuts.
Obviously Ivan knew he had junk-kicked your man business; he just needed the video evidence to compel him to come clean.
Life, money and energy (Score:2)
Dang... (Score:2)
And here I thought The Final Countdown movie was going to be real life!
Hatemail? (Score:2)
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The Daily Mail (one of the cited sources) has a long tradition of sensationalizing news, libel, and outright fabrication. It also has a decidedly "right wing" bias (I put quotes there because depending on where you live, the DM may not seem right wing at all).
Hard to see why someone would take this opportunity to express their views on british tabloids but there you have it.
-b
Missile my ass. It was a marketing ploy (Score:2)
for this [imdb.com]. Why didja think they did it over Scandinavia.
UFO for sure (Score:2)
I looked at the pattern of the circular design made by the stray so called missile, and don't buy it for a second.
The spiral pattern is to perfect (more like a trace lining of light sent out from something....) as a stray missile would have
deviance in its pattern, and there was none in the pattern we saw in the sky, it was way to perfect for it to be a stray missile.
I vote on UFO, or maybe a flashlight behind a cloud shining through a design of a circular nature.
Coincidence? (Score:3, Funny)
Cold War ends, Global Warming Starts?
Don't worry, its just the Russians in the fight to stop Global Warm...erm Climate Change.
Re:Testing missiles? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Testing missiles? (Score:5, Funny)
It was supposed to detonate over the polar cap and melt it to shut up the global warming deniers.
Re:Testing missiles? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Testing missiles? (Score:5, Informative)
So where was the missile supposed to go?
Just a test run and then crash into the sea?
Yes. At this point, they would be quite happy if it would at least do that properly. So far, there were 13 (known) tests, and 6 of them failed. Most importantly, the 2 tests preceding this one were failures. This for a weapon that was supposed to be in service 3 years ago originally, and at the beginning of this year was claimed to be fully operational by the end of it.
Since this is supposed to be the next-gen uber missile to replace the venerable Topol-M, is supposed to be able to penetrate "any defense" (it's MIRV with EM shielding, and ability to maneuver and fire decoys in flight if it's shot at), and since it's the first weapon of that kind developed entirely in modern post-Soviet Russia (not a design developed in USSR, and not a project inherited from USSR), its success was supposed to prove that Russia is "up off its knees", and ready to take on the big boys if needed, as in the good old times... And since it's been such an abject failure so far, needless to say that it serves as a good target for related jokes these days.
Launch history of the Bulava (Score:5, Informative)
The launch history of the Bulava is discussed here. [russianspaceweb.com] It's worked a few times, but they've been having failures in minor components like explosive bolts. That indicates quality control problems in the supply chain, not design problems.
It's hard to restart an entire high-tech supply chain when there hasn't been any demand for years. The US lost the ability to build nuclear weapons for over a decade.
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You are right, but it's hard to determine the soundness of a design if QC is lacking, even in the supply chain.
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"Most likely into Okhotsk..."
Isn't that where they make kid's bib overalls?
Re:No Fool (Score:5, Insightful)
But this story is in the Daily Mail. Since I don't believe anything they say maybe Russia *hasn't* denied it?
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They're probably ramping up the program in response to the Americans' plans to put missile defense batteries in Central Europe.
You're right, we should cancel that plan. Oh wait. [nytimes.com]
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: X DUP 1+ . . ;
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It was a successful fake failed missile launch designed to convince the world that the missile is not yet functional.
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