IS it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a UFO?
No, actually it was US space shuttle, Falcon 9.
Hundreds of people around South Africa thought they had witnessed a UFO sighting on Sunday 29 September around 7pm, but in fact it was the Falcon 9 space shuttle, which was launched from California at around 6pm CAT. The shuttle was carrying several satellites and allegedly released rocket fuel still in its fuel tanks which produced the large halo-like object that people saw.
A group of friends who met at the ‘Haunted House’ between La Mercy and Westbrook in the north coast on Sunday evening to take light orb photographs for the first time (they are amateur photographers).While there, they noticed the strange, growing light moving towards them.
According to Rhonwyn van Tonder (one of the photographers), family that arrived at the time, thought the light was being emitted from the house and that they were responsible for it.
“I believe, thanks to the local radio stations that it was a US space rocket releasing fuel. They also mentioned that it was visible in four provinces,” said van Tonder.
Falcon 9 v1.1 shuttle was launched by SpaceX on Sunday at 4pm UTC at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, delivering the Canadian Cassiope Satellite and secondary payloads to Low Earth Orbit.
The Falcon 9 v1.1 is based on the shuttle’s predecessor Falcon 9 v1.0, which has flown successfully five times since 2010. The Falcon 9 v1.1 is a new launch vehicle with a number of changes and upgrades compared to the previous Falcon.The goal of Falcon 9 v1.1 is improving Falcon’s payload capacity, increasing reliability and further decreasing launch cost by implementing easier manufacturing processes.
Falcon 9 v1.1 stands 68.4 meters tall, is 3.66 meters in diameter with a liftoff mass of 480 000 kilograms.
Click on the link below to view the VIDEO: Lift off of Falcon 9 next generation rocket
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0mLlO9enfY&feature=youtu.be
This is another video taken: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iayQ110R_hc
