People of the Urals Thought the ICBM "Topol" Test was a UFO or Meteor
Residents of the Urals took the test of "Topol" for a UFO or a meteor. A bright flash in the night sky caused a lot of speculation. Even the most incredible versions were considered, from an alien ship to a North Korean missile attack. Ekaterina Grigorova knows how to distinguish between "Topol" and a UFO. She's joining us now: "Hello, Katya! Why are there fancy circles and unusual lights after a ballistic missile"?
A bright glowing ball is the torch of the first stage engine. But other visual effects occur during the flight of the ballistic missile. Last night, people in Tyumen, Ufa, Saratov and other cities noticed a strange phenomenon. Witnesses say that it was a bright glowing ball that flew for a while in the night sky, and then went out.
There was a whole discussion on the Internet about what it could be. In social networks, people made various assumptions: UFO, meteorite, North Korean missile, the launch of a spacecraft from Baikonur. But it turned out to be very prosaic. The Ministry of Defence tested the intercontinental missile "Topol." It was launched from the Kapustin Yar test ground.
The conditional goal was at the Sary-Shagan testing range in Kazakhstan. The bright light came from the missile.
Alexey Leonkov, military expert: "When a warhead flies at hypersonic speed, a so-called plasma cloud is formed around it. And when it pierces the layers of the atmosphere, that's the kind of track you get. It may vary, of course, depending on the temperature and density of the layers".
An intercontinental ballistic missile trajectory consists of three parts: active, passive, and re-entry. During the first phase a missile accelerates, and the warhead is brought outside the atmosphere. The engines of all stages consistently finish working. Once the fuel burns out, the stage is separated. Entering the trajectory, the missile is maneuvering actively, evading anti-missiles. For this, all the stages are equipped with special turret nozzles.
At the beginning of the passive phase, the reentry vehicle is separated from the last stage of the missile. It happens outside the atmosphere, at an altitude of about 1,000 km above the earth. Further, the re-entry vehicle starts to descend along an elliptical trajectory.
The most spectacular phase for the ground observers is the first, active, part of the flight path. Running engines leave behind a foggy white trail in the form of a cone, and the maneuvering process creates the effect of a bright spiral drawn in the night sky.
Experts explain that what the inhabitants of Tyumen observed was a training launch. The telemetry was tested, the technical characteristics of the warhead flight were checked. I reiterate that the flight itself is programmable. Thus, it is possible to overcome ABM systems.