SpaceX has been periodically launching new Starlink satellites into orbit with its Falcon 9 rocket booster, and debris from a recent launch left Oregon residents and others in the Pacific Northwest completely blown away.
In a video uploaded Thursday by YouTube channel Andy’s Auto Care Plus, a dazzling display of lights is seen above an Oregon sky and is referred to as “comets” and “meteors.”
In reality, the lights were likely from the debris of an earlier March SpaceX Falcon 9 launch. The burning remains of the company’s Falcon 9 rocket booster as it moves through Earth’s atmosphere.
SpaceX hasn’t spoken out since the display, though the lights were recognized as rocket debris from a number of astronomers and meteorologists. The company’s Falcon 9 is a partially reusable rocket with two stages.
While the rocket’s first stage does the initial heavy lifting and lands back on Earth, the second stage guides into a “parking orbit,” to its final trajectory.
Some fun facts about space debris reentries:
(1) A breakup like the one over Seattle happens at about 60 km (~40 miles) up, far above where airplanes fly (more like 10 km).— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) March 26, 2021
A SpaceX test flight of the Starship SN11 prototype is set for launch later today, from the company’s Boca Chica launch center in Texas.
You can see the full video below, complete with the sounds of a child getting excited at the sight of their “first shooting star.”
