[ResearchMonkey]

I too have watched a shuttle launch, STS-101 Atlantis. As a flight goes down-range they look like they are traveling slow but you know they hauling butt.

I can see the Vandenbereg launches from my living room and while I didn’t witness this incident it sure looks like a launch to me.

[Errant]

It's amazingly similar, but keep in mind that you are seeing an image in the video at probably maximum zoom that the camera was capable of.

Also, the UFO doesn't seem to be traveling very far before the upper level winds distort the contrail a lot. It looks to me like it's traveling at subsonic speeds. An ICBM would be into multiple mach speeds at that altitude.

I still think it was an aircraft.

[ml/nj]

As a flight goes down-range

I was talking about the initial ascent of the Shuttle viewed from five miles away.

Obviously the further away one is the slower everything appears; which is why the comment that some mistook it for a missile because of their viewing angle is so absurd.

ML/NJ