A SpaceX rocket carried 10 satellites into orbit from California on Friday, leaving a long trail which could be seen all over Southern California and as far away as Phoenix, Arizona.
This isn’t a new SpaceX rocket, either. Elon Musk‘s company used the same rocket to launch a bunch of satellites for the same company – Iridium Communications – back in June. The satellites are replacing older Iridium models, and will be used for global aircraft tracking and a ship-tracking service.
We have liftoff! #SpaceX launches the Falcon 9 rocket, it’s 18th mission of 2017, in California #tictocnews pic.twitter.com/F4YE0dnOZa
— TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) December 23, 2017
But the main yarn here is that trail, which appeared along with the setting sun and made people on social media and beyond think of everything from a UFO to a North Korean missile attack.
The pics and video from social look pretty great.
Awesome to catch my first ever rocket launch! @CBSLA @ABC7 @KTLA #spacex #iridium #LosAngeles #rocket pic.twitter.com/uLusNl53id
— Braden Walker (@bradenCNN) December 23, 2017
https://twitter.com/abc7greg/status/944380752912834560
The hell is going on pic.twitter.com/zZedPw8Kej
— Matt Clapp (@Matt2Clapp) December 23, 2017
https://twitter.com/AktiveFour/status/944380355095621632
WOW!!! The view from LA is amazing!!!! People are going to freak out #spacex #IridiumNEXT pic.twitter.com/0mznMRvDKI
— Amanda Knez (@alias_amanda) December 23, 2017
Look, you’d think there should be requirement that you inform people in the vicinity of what is about to happen before you launch a fuck-off big rocket into orbit. Just sayin’.