Also a series of 12
satellites developed for the
US Defense Advanced Projects Agency (
DARPA) to detect
nuclear detonations in the
Earth's
atmosphere.
They were
launched between
1963 and
1970 in pairs from a
single vehicle and placed 180
degrees apart in
circular orbits or approx. 111,000 km (or 69,000 miles for the
Americans (well I suppose they were their satellites)), (btw, that's higher than
geo-synchronous orbit).
On
September 22
1979 one of the Velas
registered a
brilliant flash between
Africa and
Antartica. One
explanation is that the
satellite was hit by a
micrometeoroid, however, some believe that it detected a
clandestine nuclear test by
South Africa or some other suspected nuclear state (South Africa and
Israel are believed to have co-
developed nuclear weapons secretly).