Daedalus Reply:
November 12th, 2010 at 10:48 am

Under no circumstances was this an aircraft of any kind. I was/am here. I saw it. I was sitting just offshore and watched it. I am an Aeronautical Engineer. This was no aircraft. It was launched with a vertical trajectory which slowly arced into low orbit for about 12 minutes. The contrail disappeared as it exited the atmosphere and the engine continued to burn for another 4 minutes before cutoff. Aircraft engines do not exhiibit flames like that unless in afterburner mode and certainly do not exit the atmosphere. My first impression was that it was a test fire from a minuteman site as the initial siting was VERY close to shore. Whoever did it – it was definitely a rocket AND it was definitely posturing of some kind. I would have been expecting a response 22 minutes later had there been multiple firings. It was rather unnerving…