Comment: Updated 21 July 2012
Two corrections:
I have been sent a link to the original source article from RIA Novosti quoting the Defense Ministry in Moscow. Published at 22.15 on Thursday 7 June, this would appear to clarify the Jerusalem Post's citation of the Russian Defense Ministry - the Jerusalem Post was referring to the Russian language RIA Novosti article published 40 minutes after the missile's launch, while I mistakenly believed the JP was referring to this English language RIA Novosti article published the next day on 8th June 2012. There seems to have been a minor oversight at RIA Novosti offices in Moscow where someone forgot to inform colleagues working on the 'UFO over Israel' case on the English language section of their website that there was no need for them to cite the Huffington Post as saying that the Russian Defense Ministry had stated that they launched a missile at 21.39 on 7th June... because it was RIA Novosti themselves who first procured the statement from the Russian Defense Ministry.
In addition, as first brought to my attention by Sott.net readers, voices speaking in Russian can be heard in the video I described in the article as being filmed from Israel ('No UFO!! Russia test-fires intercontinental ballistic missile... Seen in Israel'), meaning that it was probably filmed from southern Russia. Israeli Ynet have since updated their article dated 8th June with another video filmed from Israel:
So it seems that the Russians did launch a missile from Kasputin Yar in Southern Russia eastwards to Kazakhstan on the night of 7th June 2012. But it is extremely unlikely that it was the same object that was seen 2,000 km to the southwest in Lebanon and Israel due to the distance between the launch site and the Middle East countries involved.
May you live in interesting timesThere were widespread reports from the Middle East to central Asia of a strange phenomenon in the late evening sky on June 7th. Emergency phone lines lit up as excited eyewitnesses reported a spectacular light display. Judging by the distribution of media coverage that followed, people in Israel and Lebanon were particularly excited about the event, reporting the extraordinary sighting of "multiple airborne objects". It was apparently unmissable across a vast area because there were also multiple reports in Cyprus, Syria, Turkey, Jordan and several countries in the Caucasus. The earliest reports came from Lebanon where the daily L'Orient Le Jour reported that "meteorites were clearly visible" and LBCI News reported that "luminous objects and meteor bursts appeared over north Lebanon", before quoting Lebanese astronomers as saying they were the result of a large meteorite that exploded and left "visible trails of dust." Another Lebanese publication, Naharnet, described the phenomenon as a "meteoric downpour", while the state-run National News Agency reported that the objects were "clearly visible."
~ Ancient Chinese proverb
It's at this point that the story changed from being one of multiple 'meteoric' sightings to just a single fiery object that was "probably" a Russian missile.
The next day, Friday 8 June, the Jerusalem Post reported that Russia had carried out a successful rocket launch of an inter-continental ballistic missile the previous evening, Thursday June 7th. The Post went on to quote a spokesperson for the Israeli Astronomical Association as saying "the object reached an altitude of 80 kilometres." Sure enough, Russian news agency Interfax carried a report that cited the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces (RVSN) as saying they had successfully launched an RS-12M Topol ICBM from the Kapustin Yar range in the country's southern Astrakhan region missile at 21.39 local time on Thursday evening. The Russian Defence Ministry's spokesman for RVSN, Col. Vadim Koval, told Interfax that "the missile hit the simulated target at the Sary-Shagan range in Kazakhstan with projected accuracy." The RVSN's own website was updated to account for this missile launch.
That would appear to have settled the issue for most. I'm not convinced though.
Comment: Continue to Part Eight: Letters From the Edge
See also: Mass Extinctions - Interruptions in the Orderly Process of Evolution for some great graphics!
Dinosaur Extinction Page
Crater Morphology; Some Major Impact Structures