NUFORC Sighting 5675

Occurred: 1999-02-23 02:29 Local
Reported: 1999-02-24 00:00 Pacific
Duration:

Location: Vandenburg AFB, CA, USA

Shape:

From Santa Barbara: No LA fireball, VAFB missle launch Peter and Art, I've seen them from as far away as Vegas in the past. 70 miles west of here, vapor trail was STILL visable 100 miles east over LA when I ran at the beach at 6:30am, Love you guys anyway...Story below:

VAFB launches Delta 2 rocket on 11th attempt 3 SATELLITES ON BOARD 2/24/99 NORA K. WALLACE NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER After more than a month of delays and 10 scrubbed launch attempts, the first satellites built by Denmark and South Africa were boosted into orbit Tuesday from Vandenberg Air Force Base, with both nations gratefully heralding the start of their own space ages. On the 11th launch attempt, the Boeing Delta 2 rocket burst into a clear sky at 2:29 a.m. Tuesday. The rocket carried into orbit the Danes' Orsted satellite, the South African SUNSAT and the ARGOS, a global environmental and military space project that is the largest and most sophisticated research satellite ever taken into space for the United States. The rocket's fiery ascent through the stars could be seen by onlookers for more than three minutes, as the booster reached speeds of 10,000 mph. "Thanks to the people of America, this is the first small step of ours into space,'' Garth Milne, SUNSAT project manager, said at a January press conference. It was a long road for the foreign satellites. The launch, originally scheduled for early January, was continually delayed because of bad weather and various mechanical problems. The launch was a highly anticipated international venture, but the more than 100 dignitaries, industry leaders and students from South Africa and Denmark who spent the first half of January on the Central Coast returned home weeks ago. South Africa's satellite quest began in 1991 at the University of Stellenbosch. Initially, 14 graduate engineering students were involved Ñ a number that grew to more than

Posted 1999-04-02