An early morning missile test in New Mexico left a white contrail plainly visible in the Arizona sky Thursday morning.
The unarmed Juno target missile was launched about 6:55 a.m. from an old military depot in northwestern New Mexico.
It was aimed at the White Sand Missile Range, some 215 miles away, but a White Sands spokesman says it was successfully intercepted over the range by a Patriot missile and disintegrated in midair.
Range spokesman Luciano Vera says a second Patriot fired from White Sands self-destructed after the first Patriot hit the target.
The corkscrew-shaped contrail was visible in Phoenix, more than 400 miles west of the launch site.