Calls From S.F. to Baja California : AF Missile Launch Puts On Light Show in Sky

A Minuteman I rocket launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base illuminated the evening sky Monday like a brilliant white prism, prompting calls from curious residents from San Francisco to Baja California.

Residents began calling radio and television stations and Vandenberg Air Force Base at about 6:45 p.m., three minutes after the test missile was launched. The missile was fired from the base near Lompoc across the Pacific Ocean toward a Marshall Islands atoll.

Sgt. Virgil Short, a public affairs officer at Vandenberg, said the burned and unburned fuel from the rocket reacted with moisture in the air to create a “twilight phenomenon.”

“It looked like a big white eagle 200 miles across,” Short said. “It was beautiful. We got 25 to 30 calls from people in San Francisco, Paso Robles and all the way down to Baja.”

The purpose of the launch was to test what officials described as a “reentry vehicle” developed by the Ballistic Missile Office at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino. The vehicle was carried atop the Minuteman I. Officials said the vehicle performed as expected while en route to the atoll thousands of miles to the southwest.