ODESSA, Texas — A strange light seen over the Permian Basin Monday night had many residents wondering if aliens had finally arrived on our planet.
The answer to this mystery, however, isn't all that exciting. In fact, this phenomenon happens quite frequently and has origins not too far from human creativity. The light wasn't an asteroid or UFO but was actually a SpaceX rocket launching into space.
SpaceX has had a pretty busy week, launching three separate rockets so far this March. Although we can't 100% confirm which rocket we saw, the most plausible seems to be the Falcon 9 rocket that was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at about 6:56 p.m. ET on March 4th. If you were outside around 7:15 CT that evening, you probably noticed it as it was on its way into outer space.
The final destination of the rocket and its cargo is about 340 miles above Earth's surface, where 23 Starlink satellites were unloaded. This is part of a wider plan to deliver nearly 12,000 low-orbiting satellites to provide a stable internet connection anywhere in the world.
