SpaceX recently launched a rocket carrying an Argentine Earth-observation satellite from California’s Central Coast, and both the night sky and social media lit up. The rocket launch took place from Vandenberg Air Force Base, 158 miles north of Los Angeles. It took off at 19.21 PST and touched back down eight minutes later, having delivered the SAOCOM-1A Earth-observation radar satellite into orbit as part of Argentina’s national space program. This is the first time SpaceX has landed one of its booster rockets on the West Coast.
The people who knew about the launch took amazing photographs and posted jaw-dropping photos and video of the spectacular event and the amazing sky-illuminating effects that resulted from it.
But some people were taken aback by surprise and thought it was comet or an alien spaceship. People tweeted different things on Twitter.
Laura Gadbery wrote “Something exploded in the sky west of Phoenix, Anyone catches it or know what it was?”
Lloyd Lawrence, another user in Phoenix – about 490 miles (790 kilometres) away from the launch site – said he was driving on Interstate 10 when he saw the launch and “couldn’t believe my eyes. I wondered who was holding the gigantic flashlight in the sky.”
Jill Bergantz Carley wrote: “OK Twitter, what the heck is this #UFO #brightlight #plume-a-licious thing we just saw in the sky above #Reno – it radiated beams of light!”
Whatever people might think, the primary purpose of the SpaceX mission was to place the SAOCOM 1A satellite into orbit, but SpaceX also wanted to expand its recovery of first stages to its launch site at Vandenberg.