[Wayne07]

In this photo, it looks like it is lit from the underside, as you would expect from a contrail.

[TigersEye]

Since the sun has set it must be lit from behind not underneath. So, where does it go? If it were headed straight for the coast why doesn’t it continue on overhead? It is obviously a pic taken after the vehicle has passed and is breaking up.

[dynoman]

What struck me about hte video is that the object is so slow moving.

Another clue is the shadow of the contrail in the sky in the photo you posted. I’ve seen that before, it happens when the shadow, the contrail and the sun are in line with each other. It cannot happen with a vertical missle contrail.

[thecabal]

This photo seems to show a moon shadow much like the ones that were seen on Space Shuttle launches. I also heard a report on some other website (sorry, can't remember which one) about a local who saw a "beam" originating from the moon at the time in question. This is the same thing that other people described when seeing that Space Shuttle moon shadow. I used Stellarium to wind back the clock to see where the moon was in the at the time of the alleged missile launch.

The moon seems to have been in the correct position to get the moon shadow as posted in your photo (keep in mind that these KCBS shots are extreme zooms, so the FOV won't be the same as my Stellarium screenshot). If that is a moon shadow as I suspect, doesn't that support a ground launch? There are a lot of self-professed contrail experts here. Can you point me to a moon shadow from a high-altitude contrail?