HAMLET — What was likely part of a SpaceX rocket was seen in the southeastern sky over Richmond County around 8:40 p.m. Saturday.
Several people from across the state, including from Rockingham Dragway, posted photos on social media, thinking it may have been a comet — or a UFO.
According to the company’s website, SpaceX launched the Galileo L12 from launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8:34 p.m. April 27, minutes before the sighting over Richmond County. The spacecraft was launched on the Falcon 9 rocket named B1060 which last flew 35 days ago lofting a payload of Starlink satellites. B1060 first flight placed a satellite for the American GPS system in orbit.
The Galileo satellites make up the European equivalent of the American-owned GPS satellites. The GPS satellite constellation provides positioning data to the devices that bear the same name. The Galileo constellation provides Europe with their own navigation system.
According to SpaceX’s website, this was the 20th flight of the rocket that lifted the spacecraft to orbit. This will be that craft’s last flight, however. According to the digital publication Next Space Flight, the booster will not land but will be allowed to fall into the ocean like most other rockets. Usually the craft has leftover fuel that it can use to fly back to shore or more often to a floating landing barge off the coast of the launch pad. However, the mission profile for this flight required more fuel than other missions.
SpaceX has gained notoriety in the last several years for breaking barriers in the space-launch industry. In 2008, it became the first company to launch a privately funded fully liquid-fueled rocket to orbit; in 2012, it became the first private launch provider to send a craft to the International Space Station.
In 2015, SpaceX became the first to land an orbital rocket. In 2020 it launched the first crew on a privately owned spacecraft when it fulfilled a contract with NASA to fly astronauts to the ISS. This was also the first crewed spaceflight launched from U.S. soil since the end of the space shuttle program. The company again made a first when it launched the Inspiration4 mission in 2021, the first launched with an all-private citizen crew.
What you saw
Most likely it was the craft’s upper stage carrying the satellite to orbit that Richmond County residents witnessed.
The upper stage contains a single rocket engine (called a Merlin engine ) that is capable of pushing the satellites to their intended orbits.
The craft appeared as a large cone shaped cloud with the rocket at the tip of that cone. The engine exhaust propelling the rocket expands in the low pressure upper atmosphere and creates the cone shape.
