Space X spiral over UK.

[Eburacum]

A Space X rocket was seen over the UK last night, forming a spiral due to a fuel dump.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c7vzpmjm9vlo

An unusual spiral appeared in the sky above the UK on Monday night, leading some people to wonder what was going on.
It is thought the cloud-like display was caused by SpaceX, which was conducting a classified rocket launch.

Several interesting factors to this;

The launch was for a classified (secret) mission,

SpaceX said on X the launch was carried out on behalf of the US government National Reconnaissance Office mission. The Kennedy Space Center also said on X the launch was a classified mission for that office.

.The spiral moved quite quickly across the sky, and was only visible for a few minutes. Since it was in, or near, orbital height, this is as expected.
. I didn't see it myself, but it was all over Facebook within minutes.
.Someone who did see it said it was much easier to see using a smartphone; this is an interesting factor- smartphones are very good at picking up faint phenomena in the sky, like the Northern lights. Smartphones also seem to exaggerate ordinary, distant planes into bright, nearby 'drones', so they are a mixed blessing.

 

[JMartJr]

I am here to confess that somebody showed me what appeared to be doorbell-cam footage of this event, which I assured them looked like CGI to me. I will now reach out to them and make a correction! And will be more careful in the future mouthing off! (I was aware of spiral fuel dumps or leaks, but it moved so fast it just really looked fake!)

 

[Mauro]

It has been seen in Italy too

Avvistamenti in Italia di una spirale luminosa in cielo: risolto il mistero

La spirale luminosa vista in cielo ieri sera da molte zone d'Italia specie in quelle del nord-est, non è più un mistero. Si tratta di una scia di propellente rilasciata dal motore del Falcon9 di SpaceX, partito ieri da Cape Canaveral, in Florida, con a bordo il satellite governativo NROL69. Il fenomeno – chiamato anche "deorbit burn" o "venting" è stato visto anche in Europa ed è il rilascio del propellente in eccesso da espellere prima del rientro distruttivo del razzo in atmosfera per renderlo più stabile nella caduta programmata.

https://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2...to_il_mistero-424084672/?ref=RHRM-BG-P1-S1-T1


Sightings in Italy of a luminous spiral: mystery solved.

The luminous spiral seen in the sky yesterday evening in many places in Italy, expecially the notth-east, is no more a mystery. It's a stripe of propellant released for the Falcon9 SpaceX motor, which took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with the governative satellite NROL69 on board. The event - also called "deorbit burn" or "venting" has been seen in Europe too and it's the release of excess propellant before the destructive reentry of the rocket in atmosphere, to make it more stable during the planned fall.


PS.: I translated it as it is, I don't vouch for it to be exact.

 

[flarkey]

I managed to see about the last 5 seconds of this. A friend in my village messaged the one person she knew who'd be able to identify it instantly - me! I ran outside and just saw a fuzzy blob disappear towards the east into the Earth's shadow.

The whole event just shows that when something really weird happens in the sky there are enough smartphones around for people to get good and multiple images of it.

 

[Calter]

Browsing Reddit as it happened, r/UFOs was plagued from angles of this event from basically anywhere in western Europe. Most were deleted as the way they were posted broke some rules but I must have seen like a dozen or two.

Here's the three surviving posts about it


Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1jj1ams/light_spiral_photo_is_indeed_a_consequence_of_a/



Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1jj1eeg/unknown_light_in_the_sky_north_wales/



Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1jj1izu/shapes_in_the_sky/


With one of them having as a top comment

Officially post #18 of this in the past hour.

Reports are that this is typical of a spinning rocket booster, SpaceX reported had a March 20th launch delayed until today. [Edited// Thanks u/DarkArcher__ for the correction!] Can't say that 100%, the information is spread out across, 18 threads currently.

I also saw some posts about it on a couple other subreddits that I'm too lazy to find.

I kind of envy the Northern hemisphere since rocket launches look pretty and I can only imagine they look even better in person.

 

[jdog]

I kind of envy the Northern hemisphere since rocket launches look pretty and I can only imagine they look even better in person.

My wife and I have watched two or three SpaceX launches from Vandenberg (some 250 miles north of us) go "over" our neighborhood here in San Diego. Once I could also see the firing as the first stage headed back over the ocean for recovery. Silent, of course, and easy to miss if you're not looking up for the minute they're overhead.

 

[John J.]

I kind of envy the Northern hemisphere since rocket launches look pretty and I can only imagine they look even better in person.

Hey, I live in the northern hemisphere and I missed it.
On the plus side, if you're in Oz or NZ you're probably out of range of all the pesky solid-fuelled rockets the Russian government has, which probably don't make pretty patterns.

 

[jdog]

Also for when people say we don't get good photos of UAPs because modern cell phones have bad cameras.