Dang, that was disappointing. I was hoping for a video of a known airliner which looked similar to the ‘mystery launch’ video. One that showed a real-life airliner looking exactly like a rocket speeding away.
The link is not that. For the thread: its a still image of a distant contrail. Still images of distant contrails and still images of distant rocket plumes are practically identical.
Airliners fly along that coast every day. If the ‘launch video’ was in fact an airliner, it would be easy for a camera to take a similar ‘rocket’ video the day after - one that showed an evolving plume and a ‘flame’.
A video like that would settle this issue. This webcam image just reinforces the fact that stills of distant plumes and contrails look the same.
Did you wait for the video in post 42. I was disappointed, too, at first, but half-way through the video it changes from a still image to video taken by a hand-held camera (not the fancy helicopter-based version). Also, weather was similar, but not exactly identical. We got a big cold front through from Monday to Tuesday in our area (Albuquerque) that came west from Cali. That alone may account for slight variation in the plume size. Check out the link in post 46.