During the cold war, both America and the Soviets deployed satellites into space to monitor the others nuclear development. After the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed in 1963, by countries working on nuclear capabilities. Due to radioactive fallout, the treaty banned the testing of Nuclear above ground or in the atmosphere, meaning nuclear testing was limited to underground test only. The Vella satellites were deployed to make sure no country broke this treaty. A dozen of these satellites were launched with them recording 42 “double flashes” of light related to nuclear testing, with 41 being accounted for.
September 22, 1979, a double flash of light was recorded in the India Ocean, halfway between South Africa and Antarctica, with no explanation, by Vella 5B. The satellite recorded this as a 2-3 kiloton explosion. After this incident the US flew 25 shorties over the India Ocean, with aircraft designated to collect and test samples of the atmosphere, which also found radio activity. Australia was another country to notice the increase in radiation as well, when they notice high level of Iodine-131 in sheep. Iodine-131 has a very short half-life and is formed by nuclear fallout. There was reason to believe that the flash of light was part of a secret nuclear test, but many in the scientific community attributed this event to a tiny meteor, other said it was from a burst of radiation from the sun. But the recording from the satellite was too similar to other nuclear blasts recorded in the past by the same satellites.
With no country taking responsibility, the international community was quick to look at Israel as the culprit with their own clandestine nuclear program, already in the works.
In Hersh, Seymour book, “The Samson option: Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy,” he noted that Israel conducted the test themselves. After two Israeli Naval ships were dispatched to do conduct the test themselves, and that this was the third test.
Later in 1994, a convicted Soviet spy named Dieter Gerhardt stated:
Although I was not directly involved in planning or carrying out the operation, I learned unofficially that the flash was produced by an Israeli-South African test, code-named Operation Phenix [sic]. The explosion was clean and was not supposed to be detected. But they were not as smart as they thought, and the weather changed—so the Americans were able to pick it up.
In 2022 data from the Nimbus 7 satellite was examined, and it showed signs that a nuke went off too. Nimbus satellites were a type of weather satellite that were launched between 1974 and 1978. They were capable of studying holes in the Ozone layer and did so robotically. The data was recorded and never looked at. When it was, it was discovered that the same flash that the Vella 5B satellite picked up 28 years ago, also burnt a whole in the Ozone layer as well.
While the Vella incident is still a mystery, most people believe that the evidence, only points to one country, Israel, with all other nuclear cable countries disclosing test and signing treaties, it seems as if Israel was doing their own test and tried not getting caught. They knew about these satellites, and believed Vella 5B to be retired, only to be mistaken, leading to them potentially being caught.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S1024856022040066
Adolf to Azov 
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