The Vela Incident (Part One: Alert 747)"There was indication of a nuclear explosion in the region of South Africa, either South Africa, Israel using a ship at sea, or nothing."
In May 1969, Vela 6911 had been launched into the upper atmosphere to monitor a portion of the planet for any sign of a nuclear explosion. It was an Advanced Vela Satellite, carrying X-ray, gamma-ray, and neutron detectors. It was also armed with a pair of optical sensors called bhangmeters, which were named that almost as a joke, because 'you would have to be high' to believe they would actually work.
Well, over their lifespan, the bhangmeters had actually worked successfully. Of the 41 "double-flashes" that the Vela satellites recorded over their first decade of use, all had been confirmed as a nuclear explosion by other means, usually by detecting the radioactive debris afterward. But then on Saturday, 22 September 1979, at 00:53 Coordinated Universal Time, Vela 6911's two bhangmeters recorded a double flash over the southern Indian Ocean, somewhere between South Africa and Antarctica...
Check out the podcast store at unresolved.dashery.com
If you would like to support this podcast, consider heading to https://www.patreon.com/unresolvedpod to become a Patron or Producer
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/unresolved-a-true-crime-mystery-podcast--3266604/support.
464|59min
