anyone catch the "top secret rocket launch" out west tonight? We were just west of Denver heading west and the entire sky above the horizon from 10-2oclock lit up as if there was a giant headlight in space along with a bright glow across the heavens. Lasted a good 5mins. Atc had no clue what it was. Finally we were told that it was a rocket launch over OAL (Coaldale... Area 51??) Dispatch suggested secret military operations going on. Anyone know?

 

More likely: a polar launch from Vandenberg.

I saw two or three as a kid; Vandy does polar launches, so did your light show go south to north?

They have to be a short time after sunset. Makes it dark where you are, but the rocket exhaust goes crazy-acid rainbow once it is high enough to be in the sun, and out of the atmosphere. Then, it drifts lazily until it fades, which can take 15 minutes or so. Closest comparison are the Northern Lights....actually, probably related, as the sun ionizes the exhuast gases.

Groom lake (51) is by all estimates an aircraft-only research facility. The White Sands range, between El Paso and Holloman, does missiles (surface to air and surface to surface only), and is well-NOTAMd any time there is a shot.

If you were in Salt Lake airspace, you would easily see a shot from the west coast, and the Salt Lake controller would not likely know about NOTAMs in the warning areas off of California.

 

It was a sub-launched Trident II test off of the wacky west coast...

 

http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/342768602.html

 

I was on a layover in San Luis Obispo, CA maybe 12 years ago, and watched a launch of a anti-missile missile headed to the South Pacific. It was maybe 1/2 hour after sunset and left the most amazing and lingering light show I have EVER seen! Tough to describe how the rocket cone suddenly expanded to a large bluish white and expanding halo with a bright white/blue pinpoint in the center. The halo lingered and expanded for maybe 10-15 minutes before fading away. By then, I believe the missile was nearly at its target in the South Pacific.

 

I'm guessing what you saw was a noctilucent cloud, created by the rocket launch.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noctilucent_cloud

I saw one of these earlier this year after a rocket launched one super early morning out of Cape Canaveral. Although I missed the actual launch by about 30 minutes, these clouds hung in place for about 45 minutes afterwards.

It was still 30 minutes till daybreak, but they were so high up they were catching the sunlight over the horizon.

It WAS pretty spectacular!

Update:

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/11/08/us...ght/index.html

 

Thx! It was amazing. The frequency was full of pilots in awe. The only strange thing was, none of the DEN or SLC controllers knew about it. I did read that there would be secret military ops on the west coast that were going to result in different flight paths over lax, but that's it.

 

Thanks Obama!

 

You must have been behind us. We were just east of las. Sure didn't look like it was off the coast. Looked much closer. We saw something moving and then this bright light. I'm sure it was the rocket, but the strange part was the "light" started from above us. You'd think we would have seen it go up. Very odd

 

It has to get high enough that the exhaust is in the sun's rays.