What was that?: SpaceX rocket launch lights up the Central California sky
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — A spectacle in the skies over Central California has left many people wondering… “What was that?”
It seemed as a massive column of white smoke speckled with light dots.
That was a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base on the Central Coast.
The rocket was carrying 25 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit.
The rocket’s first and second stages separated around two and a half minutes after launch.
The second stage continued into orbit, while the first stage returned to Earth and landed safely on a drone ship off the coast of Baja California, Mexico.
SpaceX launches rockets from Vandenberg roughly once every week, but this one stuck out.
Clear skies, paired with a twilight launch just after sunset, allowed the rocket to capture sunlight at higher elevations, making it visible across much of the Valley.