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A Norwegian government rocket launched on January 25, 1995 to study the Northern Lights, was mistaken by Russia for a nuclear missile heading for Moscow. How could that be?
For more than an hour in winter more than two decades ago, the world experienced a tense moment that evoked the nightmares of the Cold War. Starting on Wednesday afternoon, military technicians on duty at a radar station in northern Russia noticed a suspicious dot on their screens.
This point was observed to be a rocket that was rising rapidly after being launched from off the coast of Norway.
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The question is, where is the rocket headed and is it a threat? Because that kind of nuclear tension had evaporated after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
For those who work monitoring the skies, the implications are dire. They know that a single missile launched from a US submarine in those waters could deliver eight nuclear warheads to Moscow in 15 minutes.
Because of this, the point that was monitored immediately turned into a message which was immediately forwarded up the chain of command to the President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin.
The event made Yeltsin the first world leader to activate a “nuclear suitcase”, a box containing instructions and technology for detonating a nuclear bomb. Since the end of World War II, countries possessing nuclear weapons have implemented a policy of deterrence.
The policy was based on the idea that if belligerent countries launched a massive nuclear attack, it would lead to mutual destruction.
But at that tense moment, Yeltsin and his advisors had to decide quickly whether to retaliate or not.
As is now known, this worrying chain of events ultimately did not lead to disaster.
Despite the rising tension, the story ended as a light story at the end of the evening’s news program, complete with Tom Lehrer’s darkly comedic song “We Will All Go Together When We Go” with the lyrics: “all illuminated by a blinding light”.
Aurora Borealis over snow-capped mountains and fishermen’s huts by the sea in Troms og Finnmark, Norway. (Getty Images)
The critical moment at that time led to world currency market turmoil. Meanwhile, politicians, military commanders and journalists spent an hour frantically searching for information.
BBC Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman noted: “Before we end this broadcast, we must report that nuclear war did not break out today. At 13.46, reports started coming in citing the Moscow news agency Interfax that Russia had shot down an approaching missile. Journalists, thinking they would be direct witnesses of the apocalypse, immediately contacted the Ministry of Defence.
A shocked but calm spokesman firmly stated: ‘I am sure the UK did not fire any missiles at Russia.’
A Pentagon spokesman also said, “All we have are reports of reports,” Paxman said.
The event rocked world currency markets. Politicians, military commanders and journalists were frantically gathering information. At 1452 GMT, people who were aware of the potential crisis could breathe a sigh of relief.
Interfax corrected its report by saying, “although Russia’s early warning system had detected the missile launch, it landed on Norwegian territory.”
Norwegian defense officials also confirmed that the launch was carried out peacefully. The launch was part of a routine scientific research program on one of the civilian rocket pads aimed at gathering information about the Northern Lights, a unique weather phenomenon also known as the aurora borealis.
The rocket landed as planned in the sea near Spitzbergen, well outside Russian airspace. However, an unnamed Russian defense source told Interfax that “it is too early to determine” the purpose of the launch was simply to test an early warning radar system.
Russia has been very sensitive regarding its air defense capabilities since 1987. At that time, a West German teenager named Mathias Rust managed to fly more than 750 kilometers through every Soviet defense shield using a single-engine plane and landed at the Kremlin gates.
Although the Cold War is over, it is a sign that some Russian officials are still wary of nuclear threats.
Getty ImagesIt turns out that the rocket was launched to collect scientific information about the Northern Lights, also known as the aurora borealis.
“I was very surprised when I heard about the attention paid to our routine test firing,” said Norwegian scientist Kolbjrn Adolfsen, who was in a meeting when the frantic phone calls started coming in.
Surprisingly, Norway had already informed Moscow about the planned launch several weeks in advance. This notification was suggested by Adolfsen considering that Russia might react because this was the first time an aurora borealis rocket had been launched with such a high ballistic trajectory, reaching a height of 908 miles.
“A message was sent through the foreign ministry on December 14 to all the countries concerned that we will carry out the launch,” he said. However, somehow, the warning didn’t reach the right desk. It’s a tense reminder of how one missed message can have potentially disastrous consequences.
Since the beginning of the nuclear era, there have been many incidents that almost led to destruction. Not only major events such as the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which was perhaps the closest moment to the Cold War and sparked nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union.
In 2020, BBC Future reported how false alarms were triggered by everything from migrating geese, to computer glitches and the weather. In 1958, a plane accidentally dropped a nuclear bomb into a family’s garden, luckily only their chickens died.
In 1966, two US military planes crashed over a remote village in Spain; one of them carried four nuclear weapons. Most recently, in 2010, the US Air Force lost contact with 50 missiles, leaving no way to detect or stop an automatic launch.
Dangerous moment
Yeltsin’s announcement that he had used a nuclear suitcase was seen by many in Russia as an act of recklessness and was seen as a distraction from the ongoing Chechen war.
“I did yesterday use for the first time my ‘black’ suitcase with buttons that I always carry with me,” Yeltsin told the Interfax news agency the next day.
“Maybe someone decided to test us, because the media keeps saying that our army is weak,” he said.
For one former CIA officer, it was ‘the most dangerous moment in the nuclear missile era’
Newsnight’s report on the Norwegian rocket incident may sound lighthearted, but opinions differ regarding the scale of the incident.
Military adviser Peter Pry wrote: “Never before has the leader of a nuclear power opened Russia’s ‘nuclear briefcase’ so seriously, in a situation where a real threat was felt, and the decision to launch instant Armageddon was possible.”
Getty ImagesBoris Yeltsin, President of Russia from 1991 to 1999.
However, UN nuclear disarmament researcher Pavel Podvig said: “If I had to rate these cases I would probably give them a three out of ten. There were much more serious incidents during the Cold War.”
He even suggested that the nuclear suitcase scenario may have been engineered for Yeltsin.
Russian nuclear expert Vladimir Dvorkin said Norway’s warning posed no danger. He said to Washington Post in 1998: “Even when the warning system signals a massive attack, no one will make that decision, not even irrational leaders who are surprised that one missile has been launched. I think this is a false alarm.”
Five days after the incident, a BBC radio broadcast reported Russia blamed it calling the incident a “misunderstanding” that should not be repeated. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Norway acted according to normal procedures and there should be no animosity against them.
Although disaster could have been avoided, a harmless meteorological rocket could apparently have caused such panic.
Also watch the video: Putin warns Western countries, says Russia is ready for nuclear war
(eng/ita)
date:2026-02-09 02:57:00
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