Vela Incident : Secret Nuclear Test (1979)

In 1979, a US Vela 6911 Satellite picked up a disturbing signal – the “double flash” of a nuclear detonation near the remote Bouvet island. At least, that’s what it appeared to be – but decades later no one has officially explained what the blast was, who was responsible and why they did it. Is there simply a lack of information, or is there a cover-up?

Claims and Speculation: 1981 To The Present

The principle question that has hung in the air for the last 20 plus years has been more along the lines of "whose nuclear test was it?" than "was it really a nuclear test?". The choices were basically:

• it was a South African test,
• it was an Israeli test,
• it was a joint South African-Israeli test.

But attempting to decide on one of these hypotheses is necessarily based either on guesswork or reliance on one or more hearsay or anonymous reports of uncertain (or outright suspect) reliability. The possible theories of responsibility remain the same as in 1979, although more information is now available to flesh them out

Vela Satellite

Note : "The Vela satellite program was an nuclear detonation (NUDET) detection system setup after the 1963 limited test ban and was designed to detect nuclear explosions in space and (later) air."