From: jamesoberg@aol.com (JamesOberg)
Newsgroups: sci.space.tech
Subject: More Rocket Pseudo-UFOs
Date: 19 Aug 1996 18:21:50 -0400

For more than twenty years, Russian rockets firing their kick stages over
the andes have been setting off mass UFO panics in Argentina,Chile,
Brazil, etc. I first published the explanation in 1980, but the  UFO
eager-believers have never wanted to understand what really causes their
apparitions so the explanation goes unrecognized. Here's another example
that just happened, from Jonathan McDowell's excellent space report:

"Recent Launches --------------- The Russian Military Space Forces (VKS)
launched a Molniya-1T comsat from 1-y GIK at Plesetsk on Aug 14 into an
elliptical 12 hour orbit. The spacecraft first entered a low parking orbit
of 207 x 438 km x 62.8 degrees. The Blok-ML upper stage ignited over South
America to raise the orbit to 450 x 40800 km. The sun angle made the
rocket plume widely visible, causing a flurry of UFO reports in Chile
where the alien-invasion movie Independence Day has just opened."