Jack P. Ruina
His panel's assignment was carefully weighted towards investigating the possibility that the VELA sighting had been a false alarm.
Jack P. Ruina was a professor of electrical engineering at the MIT and a longtime consultant to the Pentagon on military and scientific issues. He was chosen by Frank Press to direct an outside panel to study the VELA Satellite data after a probable nuclear explosion was detected on September 22, 1979. Ruina held many sensitive clearances and was known for his discretion.1
His panel's assignment was carefully weighted towards investigating the possibility that the VELA sighting had been a false alarm. The panel concluded that the VELA sighting "contains sufficient internal inconsistency to cast serious doubt whether that signal originated from a nuclear explosion or in fact from any light sources in the proximity of the VELA satellite." They also found no collateral signs of a nuclear event. The panel eventually reported in July 1980 that the flash was "probably not from a nuclear explosion," suggesting it might have been a "zoo event" (a signal of unknown cause), possibly a meteoroid impact.1
Sources
- Hersh, Seymour M. The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy. Random House, 1991. Chapter 20. ↩
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