UP IN THE SKY; `STAR WARS' TEST A BOOMING SUCCESS.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

In a kaleidoscope of colors like an aurora borealis in the evening sky, West Coast residents Saturday witnessed the first successful test of a scaled-down version of the ``Star Wars'' missile defense system.

``There was a ball of light in front and a trail behind it,'' said Los Angeles Police Officer Derek Mousseau, describing what he saw above him just after 7 p.m. as he rode his motorcycle in the Valley.

``It finally stopped moving and disappeared. It was beautiful. You could see all the colors.''

A prototype national defense system, a smaller scale version of what was first envisioned by former President Ronald Reagan 13 years ago, was launched out of Vandenberg Air Force Base, intercepting an unarmed missile speeding on a 16,000-mph collision corse about 140 miles above the ocean, and passing a critical test.

The Minuteman's vapor cloud, lit in rainbow colors by the setting sun, could be seen for hundreds of miles.

San Fernando Valley area residents inundated local police and 911 telephone lines asking what the phenomena was, with at least one wondering if it was an unidentified flying object.

``Our dispatcher said a woman called in to say we needed to send someone out to the UFO,'' said Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Terry McBride, of the Foothill Division. ``She said we needed everyone we had to handle this one.

In fact, the launch was the first test of the so-called ``kill vehicle'' missile's ability to actually destroy a target by smashing into it.

``We had a successful intercept,'' said Lt. Col. Rick Lehner, a spokesman for the Ballistic Missile Defense at the Pentagon. ``It was the first intercept of the national defense system.''

The unarmed Minuteman missile carrying a dummy warhead a decoy balloon was launched just after 7 p.m. from Vandenberg on a flight over the Pacific to the Marshall Islands, where the second missile intercepted it.

The defender was the Raytheon-build Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle, a 55-inch long, 120-pound device carried aloft on a booster rocket. The system is designed to destroy missiles launched by rogue states or terrorists, not a multi-missile barrage from a major nuclear power.

Unlike the Star Wars space-based laser defense system that was anticipated to intercept thousands of missiles, Lehner said this system would intercept a smaller number.

``This is a ground-based missile defense system that would deploy 20 to 100 interceptors to defend all 50 states from a missile launch from a country like Iran or North Korea, which are both developing long-range missiles,'' Lehner said.

The test is the first of 20 planned tests.

``It's the very first one and we are very pleased with the results, but we have a long way to go,'' Lehner said.

President Clinton is expected to decide next summer whether to deploy the $10.5 billion system. If approved, it would be based out of Alaska or North Dakota and would be operational in 2005.

Some critics have faulted the test plan as unrealistic and too limited to make a sound decision, while peace activists who demonstrated outside the base a week ago denounced the testing as preparation for war. They planned a demonstration Saturday.

The test, however, is the first of three before a readiness review scheduled by the Pentagon for next June.

After the launch, Vandenberg Sgt. Buzz Ritchie said base telephones were ``ringing off the hook'' from people asking that what the ``twilight effect'' they saw in the sky was.

``The missile trails catch the rays of the setting sun and the upper atmosphere winds pushing the (exhaust) in circles and knots,'' Ritchie said. ``They change colors s the rays of light hit different sections. It was very visible from as far away as Phoenix.''

Ken Reed, an Australian visiting his son, Michael Reed in Sherman Oaks for his wedding today to Los Angeles resident Brooke Lawrence, said it was sensational.

``We saw a bright light moving slowly in the sky,'' Reed said. ``Then it disappeared like the moon behind a fog bank. Shortly afterward, there was the most amazing pyrotechnic display. My son's wedding is (today). We told him we put it on for his wedding.''

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Photo: (color) Mike Gomez fishes at Castaic Lake as a smoke trail from a missile launch fills the sky Saturday.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News