The space race is certainly heating up,
and it isn't about which billionaire
can reach orbit first--
instead, it's about China's efforts to leapfrog its rivals.
One spectacle in the skies over China put on such a light show,
it left many wondering what they'd just seen.
October 2018, Hohhot, the industrial capital
of inner Mongolia.
The city of 2.8 million is going about its business
when this tears across the sky.
A large, bright object corkscrews overhead,
leaving a breathtaking trail.
Startled citizens all over the city begin filming.
It looks like some sort of vapor swirling in the sky.
And at one point--
right here-- it looks like a beam shining down on the city.
ERIN MCCARTHY: This thing, whatever it was,
was extremely strange looking, so you kind of
can't blame people for looking up and thinking
it's an alien spaceship.
Of course, a rocket launch is the obvious explanation,
but hang on.
Rocket launches don't usually happen over large, densely
populated areas.
Their contrails aren't typically illuminated like this one.
And, importantly, they usually have
linear flight trajectories, not this weird corkscrewing path.
It doesn't seem to be going anywhere specific.
It seems to kind of be meandering throughout the sky.
That raises another theory--
might this be the debut of a breakthrough
military technology?
One explanation that has been posited
is that they come from the Dongfeng Aerospace City,
where they are creating new types of technology, space age
technology, and that they are the result
of an effort to give China a leg up in the space race.
ERIN MCCARTHY: There's a lot of mystery surrounding
this particular area.
And no one has come forward to claim responsibility,
so we don't actually know what happened here.
The Chinese military keeps a tight lid on what's
happening at Dongfeng.
Foreigners are rarely allowed to visit.
But we do know the Chinese admitted
to using a missile to destroy one of their own satellites
back in 2007.
So is this video proof of some new, advanced space weapon,
is it a craft from out of this world, or something else
entirely?
Astronomer and video effects designer Marc D'Antonio
first considers that this might be a comet.
Oh, this is cool.
We talk about comets in the night sky all the time,
and comets do move across the sky.
But known comets are astronomical
objects millions of miles away.
MARC D'ANTONIO: They take days, if not
weeks, to move across the sky.
This is moving across the sky in a matter of seconds.
So is it a comet that's very close to the Earth?
If it was that close to the Earth,
it would probably envelop the entire Earth.
This glow would be everywhere.
So we can rule out that theory.
As for a UFO, in general, one of their defining characteristics
is an unknown means of propulsion,
like the famous "Tic Tac" video from 2004.
TIM MCMILLAN: In a lot of the truly unexplained UFO videos
that we see, we don't see the characteristics that you have
in this video-- namely, all of this exhaust trail
that you're seeing here.
That massive exhaust trail brings
us back to the rocket theory, but
there's some explaining to do.
First, that illumination-- how can
it be a rocket if it doesn't look
like night launches in the US?
McMillan has a theory based on the time of day.
TIM MCMILLAN: These videos were filmed
roughly an hour after sunset.
And so what you're seeing is the rocket
itself is above and high enough altitude, with the curvature
of the Earth, that the sun is actually still reflecting
light off of the exhaust trail.
OK, but what about that bizarre, corkscrewed flight
path?
TIM MCMILLAN: So whatever the object is,
you can see it's changing trajectory.
Could this be some type of classified or experimental
rocket testing?
Possibly we're looking at some kind of GPS laser-guided,
some type of rocket system that is targeting
something potentially moving.
You can see these patterns in something
like Israel's Iron Dome system, which
is designed to seek out rockets as an air defense measure.
That's also on the table.
But hang on--
McMillan says the fact that this happened
over a highly populated area opens up another less
impressive possibility.
TIM MCMILLAN: So it certainly appears that we have something
that has gone awry, and it's not traveling
the path that it was intended.
The idea that it could be a failed rocket system
is certainly plausible.
Our verdict here--
this was a Chinese rocket.
But what it was, and whether this video
captured a failed launch or a success, we can't say.
If the Chinese launched at night to keep it secret,
well, we can safely say that didn't work.
One thing is certain.
The new space race is underway and the Chinese government
is building its own space station,
so we are sure to hear more about their ambitions
in the coming years.