Last Friday, I was on my way home from a road trip with my sister when we saw something extraordinary in the night sky. We had no idea what it was at first. Was it a near miss asteroid? A missile test? Rocket launch? Aliens?! My sister took a short video (I apologize for the portrait mode):

There was a pulsing light behind the leading object that eventually fell towards the ground and turned bright red before disappearing. We watched the main object cross the night sky until it faded away. The mysterious object was a topic of conversation the rest of the way home. What was it? Well, I found out later that evening that it was a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch from Vandenberg, CA. Pretty cool, right?

Turns out, SpaceX launched their Falcon 9 rocket for its final journey of the year with a payload of 10 next gen communications satellites. According to the live feed, all 10 satellites were successfully deployed. It appears the conditions were just right for the rocket’s trail to be seen all over southern California. Elon Musk even had a snarky tweet to share regarding the rocket launch:

Whatever your personal feelings are about Elon Musk, you have to respect the guy for the contributions he has made towards the evolution of modern technology. I count myself lucky that I was in the right place at the right time and was able to see the rocket launch from my car. It feels like history in the making and the sight was phenomenal!