A number of Valley residents took to social media last night to share sightings of a glowing object seen soaring overhead after dark.
If you’ve lived in Arizona for more than a minute, you already know that it wasn’t a UFO or the return of the legendary Phoenix Lights. Instead, the glow was caused by a SpaceX rocket blasting towards low Earth orbit.
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before.
According to SpaceX's website, a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Thursday night. Onboard the spacecraft were 28 Starlink V2 Mini satellites. Liftoff occurred at 6:51 p.m. Arizona time.
As is the case with many SpaceX launches from either Cape Canaveral or Vandenberg Space Force Base in Southern California, rockets launched near sunset or after dark are often visible from Arizona — thanks to high altitudes and just the right lighting conditions. Similar sightings occurred following a SpaceX launch from Florida on April 28.
And whenever a SpaceX rocket illuminates the skies overhead, Arizona residents will always light up social media with questions and photos. Always.
That was again the case on Thursday night as posts about the glow appeared on Arizona-based Reddit threads.
One Reddit user in r/Tucson asked, “Alright, those of you who saw it... wtf was that?!” Similar posts popped up in the subreddits for Mesa, Phoenix, and Arizona.
For many longtime residents, the sight was nothing new.
“(It’s) Starlink yet again for the millionth time,” one jaded Redditor quipped.
Others, seeing it for the first time, were blown away. “Spotted it next to the moon playing basketball in Chandler. Pretty crazy to see at first,” a Reddit user in r/Mesa wrote.
And some didn’t hold back. As one blunt Redditor put it: “F*** Space X.”
Here’s a look at some of the photos of last night's launch from Reddit taken by Arizona residents.
What was that?
byu/Kailon_Urius inmesaaz
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byu/rocbolt from discussion
inphoenix
Space X 2nd stage above Phoenix
byu/Ammo_Can inarizona
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byu/Kailon_Urius from discussion
inmesaaz
