((NUFORC Note: Report consistent with missile launch from Vandenberg AFB at this time. PD))My sister-in-law, nephew and I were driving from Las Vegas toward Reno last Saturday (July 8, 2000). It was around 9:30 (?) and we were just leaving Tonopah we were about 20 miles out in the desert. We saw to the left of the Hwy. (about 1 mile off the road) an object in the sky that at first we thought was a helicopter with a search light on-- Jesse my nephew and I agreed that it could not have been a helicopter because it was to high up in the sky. The light started to get wider-actually it never moved from side to side it just kept getting wider (maybe a 1/4 mile wide) then a blue light (more like a beam) came down from within the bright light--then the blue light stayed (sort of floated in the air) and the bright light sort of turned into a haze/mist and what ever generated the bright light disappeared. It was pretty weird. Do you have any ideas of what it could have been?