In 1959, a small research U.S. program called the Vela Project was begun. In 1963, the Partial Test Ban Treaty went into effect. Eventually the Vela Hotel satellites were launch in order to monitor the Earth for signs of nuclear test explosions. This was done in order to ensure that the Soviet Union was complying with the treaty.
The Vela satellites had photodiodes aimed at the Earth to watch for the pattern of light flashes that indicated a nuclear explosion. When a nuclear bomb is detonated above ground, there is a flash of light which drops in magnitude and then increases again. What happens is that the first flash is caused by the initial heating of the air with X-rays. Then an opaque shockwave dims the light which brightens as the shockwave becomes transparent. No known nature phenomena can produce this same two flash sequence of light.
In 1979, two of the photodetectors on the Vela satellite 6911 reported the signature light flashes for a nuclear explosion halfway from the tip of South American to the coast of Antarctica. The CIA reviewed the event and concluded that it did indicated a low-yield nuclear explosion.
A blue-ribbon panel was convened by President Jimmy Carter to study the incident. The panel ultimately said that it could not really conclude whether the event was a nuclear explosion or a natural phenomenon. It was suggested by some analysts that it may have been a micrometeorite exploding.
Over the years bits and pieces of information about the incident have leaked. Members of the U.S. intelligence community have said that they thought that the U.S. blue-ribbon panel was a “whitewash.” There is some evidence that Israel as well as South Africa might have been involved.
Although the Israelis have never officially admitted or denied a nuclear program, Israel is known to have nuclear weapons. The first Israeli nuclear warhead is thought to have been produced about 1966.
South Africa had a nuclear weapons program from the 1960s to the 1980s. Before the government changed in 1990, S.A. cancelled the program and dismantled the few nuclear warheads they had produced.
David Albright and Chris McGreal claim that the S.A. nuclear program received assistance from Israel. It has been reported that Israel traded thirty grams of tritium to S.A. for fifty tons of uranium in 1977. It has also been reported that in 1977 there is some evidence that S.A. and Israel made a deal for the transfer of military technology and assistance in the construction of at least six nuclear warheads.
Now a new study by Christopher M. Wright and Lars-Erik de Geer has been conducted about what is called the “Vela Incident” which concludes that it really was a nuclear explosion. If S.A. and Israel were cooperating on a nuclear weapons program, then the time frame would be right for the detonation of a test device in the ocean south of S.A. in 1979.
The full truth of what was detected by Vela 6911 in 1979 may never be revealed but it is very likely that it was a test of a nuclear warhead by S.A. with or without the assistance of Israel.
South African nuclear bomb casings:
