People in South California had a surprising sight on Friday evening, Dec. 22. A slim, brightly lit cloud formed in the evening sky behind what looked like a comet.
Local media was barraged with calls and social media posts reported the strange phenomenon, considered a UFO by many.
It was, in fact, a multistage Falcon 9 rocket developed by SpaceX and launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County.
Aside from data and voice communications, Iridium also hosts on its new satellites an aircraft and ship surveillance systems that will, upon the network’s completion, cover the whole planet. Even now the satellites already tracking a large share of aircraft equipped with compatible transponders. Publicly accessible flight tracking websites like FlightAware, Flightradar24, and OpenSky Network already use the surveillance data.
Many Californians, however, were apparently oblivious to this information and stared at the sky in wonder, as the rocket rose through the atmosphere.