FLASH MAY HAVE BEEN METEORITE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00788R000500770001-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 10, 1998
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: February 19, 1981
• Content Type: NSPR

/96/
Approved
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U.S. Denies Deteeting A-Blast
By Thomas 4"1'oole
waaailnfton Post Stilts Writer
U,S. government sources yesterday
denied published reports that the
United States had detected a nuclear
explosion last December in the atmo-
sphere over the remote regions of the
South Atlantic below South Africa.
"There is no disagreement about
this in what you might call expert cir-
cles," one authoritative source said.
"Th re's no question a surveillance
satellite saw something, but it was not
L'tgcleg ex ilosion. ,
* e o xines i rg Star reported,
yesterday that U.S. intelligence ex-
perts said a satellite had seen the light
flash of a nuclear explosion in the sky
over the South Atlantic in the early
hours of Dec. 16, 1980. Columnists
Rowland Evans and Robert Novak
yesterday reported that monitoring
devices had detected a similar flash on
Dec. 15.
Both reports said the flash was seen
in the same remote region of the
South Atlantic where the
light of
A
~vh tsbeN i f w
Sept. 22, 1979.
said yesterday that one night last De-
cember a secret infrared satellite de-
tected something in the skies south of
South Africa. The site is near where
on Sept. 22, 1979, a Vela satellite de-
tected what most experts think was a
clandestine nuclear explosion. Sources
said no one believes the December
sighting was the heat signature of a
nuclear explosion, because it was too
weak and too brief.
aSources said they are convinced the
infrared satellite had seen the heat
trail of a meteorite burning up in the
atmosphere. The heat signal seen by
the satellite, one source said, may
even have been a violent lightning
storm in the South Atlantic below
South Africa.
Despite general agreement that last
December's sighting was not a nuclear
explosion, sources say there still is
strong disagreement about the Sep-
tember 1979 sighting. Most experts
insist a double flash of light that ex-
actly matched the signature of an
atomic explosion is what Vela wit-
9 secret,
nuclear weapons testing in the remote
xpert nuclear weapons sources regions of the South Atlantic.