A Pentagon official ruled out the possibility on Tuesday that a missile had been launched from a Southern California coast.
Earlier press reports alleged that a missile launched from a Southern Californian coast might be the cause of a vapor cloud captured by a television station's helicopter.
"We have confirmed through the different parts of the Department of Defense that are involved in missile and rocket activity that there was no military launch, either a scheduled or an inadvertent one," Col. Dave Lapan told a local radio KNX-AM (1070).
"We have confirmed through Northern Command that they have no indications of a foreign military launch in that area."
A KCBS-TV Channel 2 news helicopter crew captured footage late Monday of what appeared to be a missile in the sky northwest of Catalina Island off the Southern Californian coast. The video shows a point of light moving through the sky followed by a contrail, similar to a missile being launched.
Possible causes of the vapor trail still under investigation include weather phenomena, amateur rockets and jet planes, Lapan told KNX.
Officials at Vandenberg Air Force Base and Naval Air Station Point Mugu also said they were not responsible for the launch, the Los Angeles Times said.
Meanwhile, the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the United States Northern Command issued a statement saying federal authorities were aware of the "unexplained contrail."
"At this time, we are unable to provide specific details, but we are working to determine the exact nature of this event," the statement said. "We can confirm that there is no threat to our nation and from all indications this was not a launch by a foreign military. We will provide more information as it becomes available."
A Pentagon official told ABC News "we are going down the rabbit hole to look at every possibility."
"We're looking into it," said Ian Gregor of the Federal Aviation Administration. "We did not approve of any commercial launches in that area Monday."
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