Norwegian rocket incident

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The Norwegian rocket incident refers to a few minutes of post-Cold War nuclear tension that took place on January 25, 1995. The incident started when a team of Norwegian and American scientists launched a Black Brant XII four-stage sounding rocket from the Andøya Rocket Range off the northwest coast of Norway. The rocket, which carried equipment to study the aurora borealis over Svalbard, flew on a high northbound trajectory, eventually reaching an altitude of 1,453 km (908 miles). As the rocket climbed, it was detected by the Olenegorsk early warning radar station in Russia. To the radar operators, the rocket appeared similar in speed and flight pattern to a U.S. submarine-launched Trident missile. Russian President Boris Yeltsin was notified immediately, and the "nuclear briefcases" used to authorize nuclear launch were automatically activated. No warning was issued to the Russian populace of any incident; it was reported in the news a week afterward.

Russian doctrine reportedly allowed Yeltsin ten minutes from the time of detection to decide on a course of action. Russian observers were quickly able to determine that the rocket was heading away from Russian airspace and was not a threat. Reports differ greatly as to whether or not Yeltsin came close to authorizing an attack. The rocket fell to earth as planned near Spitsbergen 24 minutes after launch.

The Norwegian and American scientists had notified 30 countries including Russia of their intention to launch a rocket but the information may not have been passed on to the radar technicians.