US pilot reports mysterious light phenomenon during Soviet missile launch

During the autumn of 1988, Captain Robert Hopkins and a crew aboard an RC-135S Cobra Ball reconnaissance aircraft witnessed an unexplained atmospheric phenomenon following a Soviet missile launch.

The mission was conducted under the framework of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union. The objective was to record data from the launch of an SS-20 Saber intermediate-range ballistic missile, which was being destroyed as part of the treaty's verification process.

While the aircraft's sensors successfully tracked the missile's speed and trajectory, the crew was startled by a massive, translucent white light described by Hopkins as a “wall” of light. This phenomenon appeared to move at high speed from west to east toward the North Pacific, covering nearly the entire field of vision from the ground to the sky.