Dragonbabe's Comet

[urodacus]

this wasn’t perchance hobbes comet that got lost, was it?

[tmwc]

@Dragonbones

My initial guess is an ROC surface to surface short- to medium-range ballistic missile test.

Ballistic missiles tend to go upwards, at least when they’re trailing fire. Coming down, they’re not really keen on being seen. Also, you don’t test fire them at cities. Not cities in your own country, anyway.

On second thoughts, maybe it was designed by Taiwanese? In that case, anything is possible. It probably has to be dropped from one of those red balloon lantern things when directly above its target, and needs the rocket boost to help it get to the ground before it runs out of fuel. This one was fired at Taipei because they were targetting a patch of empty ocean 500 miles away.

[tmwc]

You usually launch them from secret places too, in secret, unless you’re making a statement. If you’re making a statement then presumably you would want people to take notice, and get it on TV or some such.

[Buttercup]

This ‘tmwc’ seems to know a lot about secret ballistic missile testing…

[ImaniOU]

Could it be a premature lantern? I remember the first time I saw one my first CNY in Bitan and I was freaked out.

[Dragonbones]

Yeah, maybe – if someone had attached a rocket engine to it.

[urodacus]

great idea. where do you get rocket engines in PingXi?

[tommy525]

@igorveni

[quote=“Dragonbones”]My initial guess is an ROC surface to surface short- to medium-range ballistic missile test. Any chance of that? Has anyone heard anything?

It’s funny you mention this, because a month or so ago on my way home from a shoot at around 4:30am on Fu Yuan Sreet, I saw a very large military convey, about 14 trucks, some very long carrying what I could only imagine being missiles, there were also 2 tanks and they were heading for the national airport or the military base right next to it.
That made me think a lot that day. Is something going on?[/quote]

no silly that was the new bowling alley and KTV for the troops

every now and then they take the tanks out to for a wash and wax and to make sure they run. They used to run up and down Chong Kang Rd in taichung a lot , at night.

[anon38216271]

@Dragonbones

I’m not ready to see this jelly…

[The_Raven]

@On 12 February

Ok, so Dragonbabe comes home and tells me she saw something in the sky that looked like a comet today. A large, orangish ball of fire, with a long, conical white tail. It was low in the sky, heading down at an angle between two buildings. It looked much larger than an airplane, and closer than a comet, but we haven’t seen any news on a comet or an airplane crash. My initial guess is an ROC surface to surface short- to medium-range ballistic missile test. Any chance of that?

Taiwan ‘tests new cruise missile.’ The date given is 2 February.

Note, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles are different things. Ballistic missiles are usually rocket-powered going up and unpowered coming down. Cruise missiles don’t go up an down, they go along, and the American ones have jet engines. Neither one should look like a fireball coming down, and would be smaller than aeroplanes.