Bright light seen across the East Coast sky was no shooting star. What was it?
People across the East Coast reported a brilliant light racing across the sky, but it wasn’t a shooting star. So what was it?
Before dawn on Tuesday, Sep. 10, SpaceX launched a team of four into the sky aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, according to a statement by the organization.
This rocket is part of the Polaris Dawn mission, and if it all goes as planned, the team aboard will be the first group of private astronauts to participate in a spacewalk, SpaceX said in the release.
Several people from Virginia to Pennsylvania shared photos and videos on social media speculating what they saw in the sky.
“Something crazy in the sky this morning in Virginia,” one person said in a video shared on TikTok Sep. 10.
“Comet would not be moving that fast,” commented another person on a different video shared on TikTok the same day.
The Polaris Dawn mission broke records by reaching the highest Earth orbit since the Apollo moon missions more than half a century ago, The New York Times reported.
During the multi-day mission, the crew will also conduct research to advance health on Earth and during spaceflight and test laser-based communications, according to SpaceX.
This story was originally published September 11, 2024 at 11:56 AM with the headline "Bright light seen across the East Coast sky was no shooting star. What was it?."
