Norwegian Rocket Incident
From Freepedia
The Norwegian Rocket Incident refers to a few minutes of post-Cold War nuclear tension that took place on January 25, 1995. It all began when Norwegian and American scientists launched a sounding rocket from Norway, to study the aurora borealis. It reached an altitude of 930 miles, going away from Russia on a northbound trajectory. The Olenegorsk early warning radar station detected this rocket, and radar technicians recognised its trajectory as that which a Trident missile would take if being used to blind the radars with a nuclear detonation. President Boris Yeltsin was alerted immediately. The rules stated that within ten minutes from from the detection of a possible attack, they would have to assess it and make a decision on whether or not to retaliate. With only a few minutes left, orders were given to the submarine commanders to be on combat readiness alert. After eight minutes, the rocket fell into the sea, and there was no retaliation. The Russians had been notified well in advance of the launch, but due to a mistake with communications, the radar technicians were never informed.
