Found this old article, but not much detail. Could be a barge, sub, cargo ship or truck along the coast. Have they pinpointed a launch area ? What was the time of launch ?
My previous post was assuming it was a missile launch, for the sake of investigation. We have had these rocket vapor trails in the past off the coast. Normally they just state a rocket was launched at Vandenberg. You know there were people who bought homes on hills in the Lompoc area that could have watched Shuttle launches fairly closeup right from their patios. Unfortunately they scrubbed launching the shuttle from there due to fog I believe.
It was about 5:PM PST and estimated to be about 35 miles off the coast. The still pics at the link make it pretty clear it was well off of the coast.
Yes. The "missile" was launched from Honolulu International Airport.