SpaceX rocket launch mistaken for UFO in New Jersey sky

A glowing streak flew along the Atlantic Ocean Saturday night, baffling onlookers on the East Coast.

Kyle Harrison was checking the address of a customer in Tinton Falls for a delivery of Uber Eats when he looked up to the sky and saw what he thought was a helicopter with a spotlight.

“I kept on looking at it and that definitely wasn’t what it was.” He said. “I thought maybe a UFO, but that’s kind of farfetched.”

He took out his phone and recorded the glowing orb. He then sent the video to everyone he knew and posted it on Facebook. That was when he found out about the SpaceX launch of a Falcon 9 rocket.

The commercial space company owned by Elon Musk launched a rocket on Saturday at 7:32 pm that was designed to hold 52 Starlink communications satellites, according to SpaceX. The rocket lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and touched down on a drone ship located in the Atlantic Ocean nine minutes later.

According to SpaceX, this was the fourth launch and landing of this Falcon 9 rocket.

Olivia Liu is a reporter covering transportation, Red Bank and western Monmouth County. She can be reached at oliu@gannett.com.