[KathyT]

It was no phenomenon.

It was a Russian missile, a failed missile.

When I first saw a video of it, that's exactly what I thought it was, a missile.
If you've seen a number of rocket launches, that is what you would recognize.

I spent a couple of years launching rockets made for youth, with my son, had them go a mile high. It was a blast. Many a time a rocket wouldn't "go straight". Rockets will twirl and do strange things.