Blast (off) from the past

I'm still wondering about that harmless airplane foreign missile launch off the California coast almost two years ago.  So are a lot of people:

And let me just get this out of the way right now; the simple and most obvious fact about this whole event is that the KCBS video records, of course, an actual missile flight. It cannot be an aircraft contrail, not unless that aircraft has a lit solid rocket motor strapped to it. As one engineer said about the video, “If anyone looks at that video and says it’s an airplane, they are either lying or stupid.” I could not state it any better myself, and I say that as a working aerospace engineer who’s career has been spent mostly on ICBMs, ICBM-derived launch vehicles and missile defense programs. If someone can eventually prove to me that this contrail is really from an airplane, then I will gladly buy them a house and a lifetime supply of beer. It’s that obvious, and I’ll attempt to make it more obvious to you in the remainder of this post.

This is one you need to read all the way through.  And if you haven't heard of this before, ask yourself why not.