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Did you catch last night’s lights in the sky over Phoenix?
No, it wasn’t aliens, even though Arizona is a hotspot for UFO sightings.
Rather, another SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched on Sunday evening. According to the SpaceX website, “On Sunday, April 27 at 10:09 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched 23 Starlink satellites, including 13 with Direct to Cell capabilities, to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This was the 20th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission.”
SpaceX launches that originate from California often light up the Phoenix sky with a distinctive oval-shaped glowing cloud with a tail. In the case of Sunday’s launch, however, folks in the Valley saw only a bright dot in the sky with a glowing corona.
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Still, the sight of the Falcon 9 was a cause for discussion on social media. On Sunday night on the Phoenix subreddit, u/rocbolt posted a heads-up that the rocket would be visible over the Valley that evening, and several other Redditors responded with their photos of the phenomenon.
In addition to the jokes about UFOs, most commenters expressed gratitude that they were able to catch a glimpse of the rocket.
A Falcon 9 rocket launch originating from Vandenberg Space Force Base is scheduled for Monday evening.
Here are a few Reddit submissions of images of last night’s launch.
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byu/rocbolt from discussion
inphoenix
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byu/rocbolt from discussion
inphoenix
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byu/rocbolt from discussion
inphoenix
