Elon Musk’s SpaceX lights up sky with rocket launch
Singers Billy Ray Cyrus and will.i.am were among those puzzled about the illumination over Southern California.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX turned heads in California when it lit up the night sky after a rocket was launched propelling 10 satellites into orbit.
Witnesses were both puzzled and alarmed by the illumination at around 5.30pm in Los Angeles on Friday, which was caused by a venture to improve a communications network.
Singers Billy Ray Cyrus and will.i.am as well as skateboarder Tony Hawk were among the celebrities pondering what the contrails were.
will.i.am posted a video to Twitter and asked his millions of followers: “What is this in the sky?”
Hawk, 120 miles south of LA in San Diego, posed the same question while actor Don Cheadle merely wrote: “uh…”
Some speculated the UFO was an alien visit, to which tech entrepreneur Musk joked: “It was definitely aliens.”
Los Angeles Fire Department had issued an alert to explain that the “mysterious light in the sky” was the rocket launch.
The Falcon 9 rocket was launched from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base at 5.27pm and the satellites were dispersed around an hour later.
The launch for communications firm Iridium was part of one of the largest tech upgrades in history, according to SpaceX.
