1999-09-14 - Laurel, MD - Circle

I saw a orange/red glowing object that stopped glowing and then moved, at a very high rate of speed, out into space at about a 20-30 degree angle.

I was walking my dog past the Maryland City Elementary school down the street from my house at approx. 6am. As we were passing the school heading down Crumpton South, I noticed what appeared to be a planet sized orange/red object in the sky. It was at about 40 degrees above the horizon (facing south/southwest). At first I thought it was mars or mercury, but it seemed to big to be a planet (appeared a little bigger than I have seen Venus). I kept walking while watching the object. It appeared to become slightly bigger, so I stopped before I reached a group of trees that would block my view so I could see if it was moving like an airplane with its lights on. It wasn't, so I started walking again and thinking about what it could be. When I got past the trees to where I could see it again, it had changed from an orange/red glow to a single white light(much smaller), like you would see on a plane. It blinked once, maybe twice, then moved in a quickly accelerating motion at approx 20 degrees up and to my left, out into the atmosphere. At it's fastest rate, it looked just a little slower than a shooting star. I was looking south/slightly southwest the entire time. It was still very dark, enough so to still be able to see all the stars in the sky. I was going to call the local airports to see if they noticed anything unusual on their radars at that time, but didn't think I could get through to the controllers, or whether they would give me the information if I could get through. If you can get that type of information, I would appreciate you letting me know what they picked up on their equipment. Thanks.