Space and Physics
PUBLISHED
Yesterday, SpaceX launched Starship into orbit, the most ambitious test so far of the spaceship picked by NASA to deliver Artemis IV astronauts to the surface of the Moon.
Whilst previous attempts at launch have ended in “rapid unscheduled disassemblies” and “partial successes” which also involved a little dissassembly, this launch was actually pretty promising.
Starship was able to orbit the planet twice – short of the initially-planned six orbits – deploying 26 Starlink satellites on the way, before splashing down spectacularly in the Pacific Ocean.
The flight was terminated before the full six orbits due to issues with one of the spacecraft's six engines.
“Following payload deploy, Starship entered into a coast phase around Earth,” SpaceX explained in a statement.
“Out of an abundance of caution given the engine issue experienced during ascent, the flight control team decided to limit the duration spent on orbit and proceeded with deorbiting Starship to a splashdown location in the northern Pacific Ocean.”
“This area was one of two pre-coordinated landing zones identified before launch that was cleared of sea and air traffic.”
Alien smoke?
But enough about the launch, we're here to talk nonsense.
During a livestream of the launch (we recommend tuning in next time, they're pretty cool) several space fans spotted what they believe to be an unidentified flying object (UFO) seemingly change shape above the Earth.
It should be noted that this particular user, attempting to alert Elon Musk to a “mothership”, believed he had seen other potential UAPs during the same flight, which were likely the result of... the Sun being reflected off an ocean.
However, the footage was good enough for the Daily Mail, and other conspiracy theorists.
“Remember what Elon Musk said about Aliens?” the user “Truth Pole”, who has an alien image as their profile picture, wrote on X.
“He has said that with thousands of SpaceX satellites he would know if aliens were here, and that he would post the proof on X. The object sat on his own feed.”
So, has Elon Musk's SpaceX just shown us footage of some aliens? Almost 100 percent certainly not (always best to leave a little wiggle room though, right?).
Or just exhaust fumes?
As suggested by other users of X and Reddit, the “UAP” is very similar in form to the plumes of exhaust which are often seen after other SpaceX launches. Looking back through further footage not present in the above clip you can see the plume developing and dispersing.
Go to 20:00 to watch as the booster separates, and keep watching to see the plume develop and disperse.
Even though they are not otherworldly, they can certainly look it, even taking on spiral shapes when the relevant booster is spinning just right.
“The cloud showed up after they had deployed all of their payloads, so it is likely either exhaust from a rocket burn to bring the second stage down over the Pacific, or perhaps dumping extra rocket fuel after that burn,” Don Hampton, Poker Flat Rocket Range chief scientist, explained to the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, after a previous plume was seen from the ground.
“The spiral pattern indicates that the second stage was spinning when it exhausted the gasses. Any water vapor would turn into ice at these altitudes, and the ice would reflect sunlight where the rocket was, and make a bright cloud visible on the ground in Alaska where the sun was well below the horizon. It looks really bright in those picture, but it is likely just a few pounds of water.”
Of course, there are people who think that the shapeshifting nature of the plume is a sign that it is some sort of shapeshifting alien technology.
But given how these aliens only show up in regions of boosters following a rocket launch, and they are known to cause these specific plumes, we're going to take a wild stab in the dark here and suggest that “exhaust” is a more likely explanation.
Maybe look for aliens in the cosmos, rather than in livestreams.
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