Europeans Astonished by Mysterious Cloud from SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch—What Is It?
Visible Plume in the Night Sky From a SpaceX Rocket Re-entry
On the night of June 23, observers across Europe witnessed an unexpected display as a plume of rocket propellant became briefly visible to the naked eye. This phenomenon occurred during a recent SpaceX Falcon 9 launch, which took off from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base carrying 70 commercial payloads for low-Earth orbit.
The launch’s first stage successfully performed a controlled landing on the drone ship “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Pacific Ocean. Meanwhile, the upper stage continued on its trajectory, releasing its payloads and a cloud of rocket propellant before re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. The re-entry plume crystallized as it cooled, reflecting sunlight and becoming visible to skywatchers.
Fortunately, the event was captured by the all-sky camera of the Virtual Telescope Project, recording the diffuse cloud of particles drifting across the night sky above Manciano, Italy, at 8:13 p.m. EDT. The photo shows the cloud amid the glow of the Milky Way.
UK-based astrophotographer Mary McIntyre also documented the event with time-lapse videos using specialized meteor and aurora-hunting cameras.
Similar plumes have been observed in past SpaceX rideshare missions, typically associated with fuel purges of the rocket’s upper stages. These releases can create striking swirls and patterns in the night sky, although this particular plume lacked a distinct structure.
Some scientists suggest that rocket propellant might contribute to the formation of noctilucent clouds—high-altitude, night-shining clouds that are increasingly seen closer to the equator in recent years.