I’m a private pilot and a long term watcher of rocket launches in SoCal. Lived here my whole life. Seen everything.
It is very likely it was a contrail backlit and from seen from the right angles. Sometimes they can be quite stunning and linger for hours as well out here.
There will be radar records of what aircraft were in that area at the right time too.
From the right perspective and conditions, it is totally acceptable explaination.
If you watch the speed of the vehicle and the size of the thrust plume there is no plane in services in the USA that fits that profile.
It has to be a missile.
I’ve been in my brother-in-law’s Citation at 45,000 feet. I gotta admit that from that altitude commercial airliner contrails look completely different.
The still photo’s I’ve seen of this thing DO look like contrails. If there is no video of an actual rocket taking off and creating the contrail, I’m gonna go with the contrail explanation.
Remind me NEVER to fly with you. How do you file your flight plans,...transcendentally?
I agree with you. I live about 75 miles east of Memphis TN.
This time of year under the right light conditions I have seen the same thing. A heavy Fed-Ex descending from the west will produce a similar contrail.
The video looks kind of fishy too. Like 2 edited and spliced together.