Hundreds of people reportedly called police to report ‘alien’ activity the night sky yesterday.
It was in fact the launch of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket – and it looked pretty cool.
The reused SpaceX rocket was sent into space carrying 10 satellites into orbit from California leaving not only bright trail as it soared into the sky, but left people on the ground really quite confused.
As well as ‘at least 130’ 911 calls, bewildered residents rang in to tell TV stations from all over, including San Diego, which is more than 200 miles south of the launch site, writes The Guardian.
Cars were seen pulling over on roads in LA so drivers and passengers could take photos and videos. There were suggestions it could have actually have been ‘Santa Claus’ or even a missile from ‘North Korea’.
One person wrote on Twitter:
SpaceX gotta give a better Public notice… I aint know if this was a Rocket, aliens, Santa Claus, or North Korea.
And Singer Demi Lovato even tweeted she was ‘calling b******t’ on SpaceX’s ‘excuse’, saying it was ‘a UFO and there’s been others that have been seen that are just like that’. Ok.
Falcon 9 was used to carry Iridium satellites into orbit back in June – then, it landed on a ‘floating platform in the Pacific ocean’, this time, it was allowed to fall straight into the sea.
It was the 18th and final launch of 2017 for SpaceX, of which Elon Musk is CEO – and the company made four launches in it’s latest project, and expects to make several more to complete the satellites job by mid-2018.
Elon tweeted a cool video of the ‘nuclear alien from North Korea’:
Somebody by the name of Max Power sent a tweet to Musk, saying:
Big thanks to @elonmusk and @SpaceX for the hilarious alien debate that ensued between my family once we saw your rocket in the sky tonight.
And it prompted a response from the CEO himself, who confirmed it was ‘definitely aliens’.
Aside from the whole ‘it’s a UFO’ debate, plenty of people took some really cool photos and videos of the Falcon 9.
Here’s a look at a few of those posted online:
SpaceX tweeted to announce all 10 satellites had been ‘successfully deployed’ and said Iridium had ‘acquired healthy signals from all 10 satellites’.
Musk also announced another launch for next month, tweeting:
If you liked tonight’s launch, you will really like Falcon Heavy next month: 3 rocket cores & 3X thrust. 2 cores return to base doing synchronized aerobatics. 3rd lands on droneship.
Incredible!
