Some ufo researchers (don't remember the name) did a documentary on the STS-48 Nasa footage about the plasma beam redirected to a UFO outside of earth.
These researched claimed the plasma beam was from Australia and probably from one of their US bases that had a plasma weapon canon created in the early 80's, they believed it was from Pine Gap facility.
I still can't find the documentary, but i'll post it here once i find it!

Analysis of the STS-48 footage:

Full footage: