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Despite early warnings about lightning flashes and possible sonic boom, some people logged in and assumed that it was a comet or an alien plane.
LOS ANGELES (AP) – When SpaceX launched a rocket carrying an Argentinean Earth observation satellite from California's central coast, the night sky and social media shone brightly.
People as far away as San Francisco, Sacramento, Phoenix and Reno, Nevada, have posted photos of the launch and return of the Falcon 9 rocket Sunday night. It was the first time SpaceX had landed at the Vandenberg Air Force base, located about 210 km northwest of Los Angeles.
The Air Force warned the residents of the Central Coast that they might see several engines down by the first floor and hear one or more sonic booms on their return.
But many, far beyond the region, were taken by surprise when the launch illuminated the sky, wondering what this show from another world was. Some have assumed that it was a comet or an alien plane.
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"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 approximately 790 kilometers from the launch site, said that he was driving on Interstate 10 when he saw the launch and that he could not "not believe my eyes".
"I was wondering who was holding the gigantic flashlight in the sky," he wrote.
Others in Reno, Nevada – about 550 km – have also seen galactic wonder.
Jill Bergantz Carley wrote: "OK, Twitter, what is that thing #UFO #brightlight # feather-a-licious we just saw in the sky above # Reno – she radiated rays of light! "
Debi Hammond wrote: "The weirdest thing I've ever seen in the sky. Does anyone know what it is? "
The Californians from Los Angeles to Sacramento – about 270 km (435 km) from the launch site – also posted their confusion.
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.
The satellite is the first of two of the Argentinian Space Agency, the Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales, and will work together with a constellation of satellites from Italian space agencies. Its acronym is the abbreviation of Satelite Argentino from Observacion Con Microondas.
SAOCOM 1A is equipped with a high resolution instrument called Synthetic Aperture Radar, which will be used for disaster emergency management and for land monitoring. The second satellite will be SAOCOM 1B.
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