NUFORC Sighting 80881

Occurred: 2011-04-14 21:25 Local
Reported: 2011-04-14 22:48 Pacific
Duration: 4-5 minutes
No of observers: 8

Location: Valley acres, CA, USA

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object, Changed Colo

on 4/14/2011 at approximately 2125 pm me and a co worker were driving southwest on highway 119 approx 1/2 mile west of the small town of Valley Acres. At that time we both spotted a very large orange glowing light directly west of us approximately 800 to 1000 ft in the air. We both watched silently as it seemed to sit still for about 10-15 seconds. At first I thought it was a massive gas flare that we often see at the elk hills oil and gas facility.

I had realized that this object was too high to be a natural gas flare. The large round orange object appeared to be hovering above the southwest corner of the elk hills oilfield near the elk hills power generation facility.

After sitting still for 10-15 seconds, the object began to gain altitude moving south east while it gained altitude. As it gained altitude the orange light got extremely brighter. At this point I noticed some vehicle pulling over to view the object. As we passed Elk Hills road the object was directly over us still climbing. The objects bright orange then faded to light orange then to a light blue. The object then disappeared. The object did not fade out, it disappeared in an instance. At the time the object disappeared we had pulled over on midway road and were looking east to see the object.

NUFORC Note:

Missile launch from Vandenberg AFB at 21:24 hrs. (Pacific). PD

Posted 2011-05-02