During launch, a rocket produces a cone as it passes through the point of maximum dynamic pressure. The atmosphere bleeding off the shock cone is visible in this photo of a shuttle launch:
HuffPo reports on the hysteria:
A second China UFO sighting has residents on edge, just seven days after an unidentified flying object shut down a Chinese airport.
The new UFO sighting took place in Chongqing in eastern China on July 15. Witnesses told Shanghai Daily they saw the same thing: “four lantern-like objects forming a diamond shape that hovered over the city’s Shaping Park for over an hour.”
The “four lantern-like objects” is a reference to the glow of engines. The Chinese Long March-5 rocket comes in a four-engined design:
Not too much mystery here, I’m afraid. What is interesting, though, is that news of the sighting escaped China and wound up embedded at the Huffington Post. Admittedly, the time of day and atmospheric conditions absolutely lent themselves to video:
What’s happening here is standard authoritarian procedure: experiment without notice, deny failure, announce success. (Just so we’re clear, the same is true of contractors.) The only mystery is how the communist party continues to believe that formula is even possible in the world they have manufactured. It is almost impossible to keep a secret anymore.
