An object shot across the sky, came to a stop, continued on and burned out. Looked just like a shooting start except that it stopped.

A freind and I were looking at the big dipper before our paper routes at about 5:00 - 6:00 A.M. I think this was in December but I'm not sure. I'm not sure of the year.  The year would have to have been between 1980 and 1983.  As we were looking at the Big Dipper, an object streaked across the Big Dipper going toward the horizon.  I believe the direction was North East.  The object looked just like a shooting star in every respect except for the fact that it came to a complete stop for a fraction of a second, then continued once again going just as fast as a shooting star, then it seemed to burn out the same as you would expect from a shooting star.  The object was white in color and went in a straight line.  There didn't seem to be any noticable acceleration after it stopped and started again.  It just appeared out of nowhere just like a shooting star allready moving very fast, But then it came to a complete stop for a fraction of a second and then continued seemingly without any acceration at the same rate of speed it was traveling before it stopped.