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A dazzling light that crossed the night sky on Sunday prompted some Mother Lode residents to wonder if what they saw was from this world.
The show on which many rushed on social media was the first launch of the Falcon 9 rocket on the West Coast by SpaceX, a privately owned aerospace manufacturing and travel company based in Hawthorne, founded by the Billionaire inventor Elon Musk.
Residents of the city of Tuolumne to Phoenix could have seen the rocket in the sky after its launch at 19:21. Vandenberg Air Force Base, located near Lompoc, about 130 km northwest of Los Angeles and 220 km southwest of Sonora.
"No, certainly not extraterrestrials," tweeted Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
A number of residents of Tuolumne County also shared photos and videos of the scene with social media, including Evan Royce, District 3 supervisor, who posted a video on Instagram with the caption, "Crazy … Awesome !!! #spacex. "
Max Potter, of Columbia, first saw a lightning bolt in the sky as he went out to make compost in the yard of his house, which, he says, offers an unobstructed view of the sky at South. After seeing the flash, he went to get his wife and took binoculars to see better.
"At first I did not know what it was, it seemed like something that was not on the planet, or something atmospheric," he said. "Then I started thinking about it and I had already seen things coming out of Vandenberg, and it was south, so I thought it had to be what it was. 39; was ".
Potter said that a quick Google search after the disappearance of light behind the horizon confirmed that it was a SpaceX rocket.
Several people from Tuolumne and Calaveras counties called 911 to report the event and were informed by dispatchers that it was a SpaceX rocket launch, according to the newspapers of these expeditions.
The Associated Press said the mission's goal was to place an orbiting observation satellite equipped with a special instrument that will be used for land monitoring and emergency management .
SpaceX said in a press release that the rocket had returned to earth and had landed on a landing zone at the base after being separated from the satellite.
"Falcon has landed," tweeted Musk at 21:35.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact Alex MacLean at [email protected] or (209) 588-4530.
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