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The night sky illuminates over Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, when a SpaceX rocket carrying an Argentinian Earth Observation satellite is launched on Sunday, October 7, 2018. The bright spot at the top of left is the 2nd step towards the orbit while the light spot on the right is the 1st leg that returns to the air base. (John Antczak / Associated Press)
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – – When SpaceX launched a rocket carrying an Argentinean Earth observation satellite from California, the night sky and social media became enlightened.
People as far away as Phoenix and Sacramento have posted photos of the launch and return of the Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday night. It was the first time SpaceX had landed at the Vandenberg Air Force base, located about 209 km northwest of Los Angeles, with a first amplifier.
The Air Force warned residents on the central coast of California that they might see several engines down by the first floor and hear one or more sonic booms on their return.
But many were caught off guard when the launch lit up the sky, wondering what was the view of another world. Some have assumed that it was a comet or an alien plane.
"Something has exploded in the sky west of Phoenix," Laura Gadbery wrote on Twitter. "Someone catches or knows what it was?"
Lloyd Lawrence, another Phoenix user, located more than 853 kilometers from the launch site, said that he was driving on Interstate 10 when he saw the launch and that he could not "believe my eyes".
"I was wondering who was holding the gigantic flashlight in the sky," he wrote.
Californians from Los Angeles to Sacramento – more than 547 kilometers from the launch site – also showed their dismay.
The Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, was among those who were trying to clear the assumptions, tweeting a photo of the launch and writing, "No, this is really not extraterrestrials."
Those who knew that they were watching a satellite launch posted videos of this breathtaking show, including a catch over the skyline of downtown Los Angeles and a timelapse of Kern County. .
The main objective of the SpaceX mission was to place the SAOCOM 1A satellite into orbit, but SpaceX also wanted to extend the recovery of the first steps to its Vandenberg launch site.
SpaceX had already stolen first-stage rockets after launching Florida, but had not done so on the west coast.
SpaceX also landed on Falcon 9 on the first drones off the coast of Florida and California, with the goal of reducing the cost of space launches by reusing rockets instead of dropping them into the ocean.
This satellite is the first of two of the Argentinian Space Agency, Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales, and will work together with a constellation of satellites of Italian space agencies. Its acronym is the abbreviation of Satelite Argentino from Observacion Con Microondas.
SAOCOM 1A features a high resolution instrument called Synthetic Aperture Radar that will be used for emergency management in disasters and for land monitoring. The second satellite will be SAOCOM 1B.
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, disseminated, rewritten or redistributed.
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