This thread sucks.
Gizmodo has a writeup, complete with explanation of what it really was (failed missile launch):
There’s a link to a simulation video too.
me too!
That’s really cool (and a little scary)! I hope firework manufacturers are paying attention. I’d love to see one of these next Fourth of July.
So why is Russia allowed to test fire missiles over Norway? If this was a launch from the Russian sub in the White Sea as mentioned, then they violated not only Norwegian airspace, but also Finnish airspace as well.
It would have made for more sense to test-fire the missile due North or Northeast to only endanger Russia’s own people vs. what they seemed to have done, which is aiming it Northwest slicing over both Finland & Norway.
There is no international agreement on the vertical extent of sovereign airspace. Ballistic missiles fly high. REALLY high.
Forget Norway.
This is the 9th launch failure of the Bulava and arguably the 13th failure according to some experts. The whole program has been a disaster. They seriously underfunded the design and test phase. It was supposed to be operational years ago. If the delays last any longer the submarines designed to support them will deploy without their payloads.
They need the Bulava for the Navy though . Soviet rocket tech was based on liquid fueled engines which were and are deeply unpopular in the submarine fleet for safety reasons. The liquid propellant is corrosive and it’s more volatile than solid fuel.
Russia’s defense industry doesn’t have the funding to do the same scope of products that the USSR did.
But they don’t want to admit it, so pretty much every single big ticket program turns into a disaster.
This is, of course, in stark contrast to the West, in which only half of the big ticket programs seem to be disasters.
I thought about that, but the trajectory almost seemed low enough that it would violate national air sovereignty. I’m surprised they’re not putting up more of a stink since the missile casing almost killed a Norwegian fisherman to boot. But then again, being a small country Norway/Finland I wouldn’t want to piss off the Big Bear either.
Speculation is that it was a failed Russian rocket test, though I have to say–it doesn’t look even remotely like the second image you linked–or like any rocket that I’ve ever seen, for that matter. So I’m still skeptical. If it’s a rocket, then what exactly is that disc-like spiral shape that radiates out and then disappears in an expanding black circle? It looks not at all like smoke or vapor trails, or any sort of explosion.
Edit: Here’s an eyewitness account.
Ben, that’s probably fuel being ejected. The third stage engine apparently broke free of it’s mountings.
Trident Launch Failure on You Tube
Procurement is nightmare. Is ours any better or is just not quite as bad? The biggest difference is that we have money to throw at the problem.
That’s another example that looks nothing like the photos/video from Norway, though. I mean, I understand that out of control missiles can corkscrew around, but none of the examples of that result in a perfect, smooth, spiraling disc. They move irregularly and leave a ragged trail of pluming smoke. And the smoke in that Trident video doesn’t continue to expand out–by the time the spiral is more than one layer deep, it’s already dissipating. And what was the expanding “black hole” circle at the end of the video from Norway? There was no explosion–just an expanding circle of nothing.
The black hole? That’s the absence of spiraling fuel, as rapidly as the spiral expands eventually the fuel becomes exhausted at the other end, suddenly creating a void–which is to say, empty space.
This spiral would be a lot more perfect because it was much higher up in the atmosphere; it’s an ICBM after all (from what I understand).
At the same time, you have to remember that the photos of the giant looking spiral are multi-second exposures (more than likely, perhaps 5-10 seconds) meaning it’ll look very different from the video footage (the videos make it look positively small).
Early photos clearly make it out to be a missile launch of some kind; you can see the launch smoke manipulated by low-level winds before it gets to the upper atmosphere and the under-the-horizon sunlight change color.
— Alan
It is without doubt the most spectacularly awesome-looking rocket explosion in the history of ever. It may remain that way indefinitely – you’d have to work really hard to make something that cool on purpose. I am very much inclined to believe that it was a genuine accident and resulted in a spiraling engine on the edge of space. What a fortunate mishap for nerds the world over!