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] ### Footnotes [^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 20.