Dec 10, 2009: Norwegian Pinwheel

[ZenGum]

New Scientist says it was a Russian rocket. (Russian around in circles....)

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...l-missile.html

... says Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and author of Jonathan's Space Report, a fortnightly email newsletter about space launches. "It's definitely a missile launch failure," he told New Scientist.

He says it was most likely a failed test of Russia's submarine-launched Bulava ballistic missile, which is intended to be able to evade missile-defence systems.

"We know that the Russian Navy submarine Dmitry Donskoy is in the White Sea and was preparing for the 12th test launch of the Bulava missile, which has had numerous failures," he says.

Of the missile's 11 previous launches since 2005, six have been failures, a track record that might explain why Russia has reportedly denied a Wednesday launch, McDowell says: "This could be because another Bulava failure is a huge and embarrassing setback for their programme."