Someone launched a missile off the southern California coast Monday night, but neither the Pentagon nor the Navy will claim credit for the rocket launch. So what is it? Where was it going? Video of the mystery missile below. Update.


Although Friday saw a Delta rocket launch near LA carrying a satellite into space, apparently, this is not connected. Here's some wild speculation from former U.S. Ambassador to NATO and former Deputy Sec. of Defense Robert Ellsworth:

When asked, however, what he thought it might be, the former ambassador said it could possibly have been a missile test timed as a demonstration of American military might as President Obama tours Asia. "It could be a test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile from a submarine … to demonstrate, mainly to Asia, that we can do that," speculated Ellsworth. Ellsworth said such tests were carried out in the Atlantic to demonstrate America's power to the Soviets, when there was a Soviet Union, but he doesn't believe an ICBM has previously been tested by the U.S. over the Pacific.


What else could it be?

UPDATE: The FAA confirmed to Jalopnik that there were no commercial launches planned for that time and an employee of SeaLaunch told us they didn't carry one out on Monday. One theory is that the missile isn't a missile at all, but rather an optical illusion created by the contrail from a jet traveling across the horizon. The military is still investigating.