News

Actions

Rocket debris lights up skies over the Pacific Northwest

Pacific Northwest Rocket
Posted
and last updated

SEATTLE — The National Weather Service in Seattle says burning debris from a rocket lit up Pacific Northwest skies Thursday night.

“The widely reported bright objects in the sky were debris from a Falcon 9 rocket 2nd stage that did not successfully have a deorbit burn,” the service says in a tweet about the astral occurrence that the Seattle Times reports was seen shortly after 9 p.m. There were no reports of damage or other impacts on the ground.

The Times reports the rocket delivered Starlink satellites, built in Redmond, Washington, into orbit earlier this week. SpaceX says the Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth and landed as planned on its ocean-going barge off the coast of Florida.