The Oko system reports a false American missile launch
The Soviet early-warning satellite system reported the launch of an American intercontinental missile, and then of several more, to its command centre south of Moscow. The duty officer, Stanislav Petrov, reported the event as a system malfunction rather than an attack, reasoning that a real first strike would not be so small and that ground radars had confirmed nothing. The alarm was later attributed to sunlight reflecting off high-altitude cloud into satellite sensors. The episode became publicly known only in the late 1990s, and Petrov himself always resisted the account in which one man's decision was all that stood in the way.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Stanislav Petrov · person · Soviet Union · not located
- The Oko early-warning satellite system · technology system · Soviet Union · not located
- Serpukhov-15 · site · Russia · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
The Cold War: A New History
Named as the general narrative authority behind this pack's framing of the period, and cited in the Journey's own declared references. V55 verification basis: NOT consulted in this session. It is also a work with a definite interpretive position — broadly, that Soviet conduct drove the confrontation and that Western pressure and Soviet internal failure ended it — and this pack cites it as one reading rather than as a neutral summary.
Penguin · 2005 · Partly verified
John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War: A New History, Penguin, 2005
Recorded on Stanislav Petrov
- Korean Air Lines Flight 007 is shot down
- The Oko system reports a false American missile launch
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- Korean Air Lines Flight 007 is shot down · 1983-09-01