California rocket leaves DOD clueless

Update: Nothing to see here, folks! More at bottom.

A CBS affiliate station in California happened to take video of a large, fast rocket hurtling skyward off the coast, but the Defense Dept. says it wasn't theirs and they have no idea whose it was.

A team aboard a KCBS News helicopter took the video of an the unidentified projectile, trailing a large contrail, as it rose from an unknown point in the Pacific Ocean off Los Angeles on Nov. 8.

Here's the vid.



Update: Contrail explained! It is in fact a horizontal, high-altitude jetplane contrail that only looks vertical because of the angle of sight from the low-flying news helicopter to the contrail. This would also explain why the FAA said there were no anomalous radar readings during the day. Technical analysis here. And here is a no-sound video of the same event that makes it pretty obvious.



Remember the old adage, "First reports are always wrong."