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20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/Air Force Technical Applications Center.md
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@ -7,9 +7,17 @@ category: "U.S. Government"
summary: "The Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC) is a unit of the United States Air Force responsible for operating and maintaining a global network of sensors to detect nuclear explosions."
start: 1959
location: "Patrick Air Force Base, Cape Canaveral, Florida"
relations:
- type: participant_in
with: "[[VELA Satellite]]"
role: "conducted the readout of Vela 6911"
start: 1979-09-21
end: 1979-09-21
fn: 1
---
The Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC) is a unit of the [[United States]] Air Force responsible for operating and maintaining a global network of sensors to detect nuclear explosions. On September 22, 1979, a [[VELA Satellite]] digitally relayed its sighting of two distinctive bright flashes of light over the South Indian Ocean to AFTAC headquarters at Patrick Air Force Base in [[Cape Canaveral]], [[Florida]]. This event was probable evidence of a nuclear explosion.[^1]
The Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC) is a unit of the [[United States]] Air Force responsible for operating and maintaining a global network of sensors to detect nuclear explosions. On the evening of September 21, 1979, AFTAC technicians conducted a routine readout of the [[VELA Satellite|Vela satellite]] designated Vela 6911, launched May 23, 1969, at Patrick Air Force Base in [[Cape Canaveral]], [[Florida]]. The readout showed a double-humped signal of the kind associated with a nuclear explosion, from a region the satellite's bhangmeters viewed across the southern Atlantic and Indian Oceans.[^1] [[Seymour Hersh]] wrote that this event was probable evidence of a nuclear explosion.[^2]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 20.
[^1]: Richelson, Jeffrey T., ed., "The Vela Incident: Nuclear Test or Meteoroid?" National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 190, May 5, 2006, narrative. https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB190/index.htm
[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 20.