After completing its satellite launch mission, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket created a strange phenomenon in the night sky on April 17.
The Subaru Telescope captured a glowing spiral appearing in the sky near Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii on April 17. This unusual phenomenon occurred after SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 9:13 AM local time.
With this launch, the Falcon 9 successfully placed the NROL-85 satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) of the United States into orbit. The operations and payload details of NROL-85 have not been disclosed.
“The video shows the characteristic spiral structure caused by the burning fuel vent after the upper stage of the Falcon 9 rocket descends. This stage descends above the Pacific Ocean,” explained Marco Langbroek, a satellite tracker from the Netherlands. Langbroek closely monitors SpaceX launches and has previously released impressive videos documenting the deployment of the Starlink satellite system.
The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket is reusable and successfully landed on an autonomous ship in the Pacific Ocean. Meanwhile, the upper stage of the Falcon 9 is not reusable. After delivering the spacecraft to orbit, this stage naturally falls back into the atmosphere and burns up.
The Subaru Telescope is an 8.2-meter optical-infrared telescope located in Hawaii, operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. This facility is situated at an altitude of 4,139 meters. Due to the challenges of working in thin air conditions, most Subaru staff work remotely, with only a few remaining on-site to operate the telescope.
