Dying SpaceX rocket triggers giant spiral of light above UK and Europe during secret mission

[jemhouston]

Cool Video

https://www.livescience.com/space/space ... et-mission

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd47qtXSgVw&t=57s

Dying SpaceX rocket triggers giant spiral of light above UK and Europe during secret mission
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By Harry Baker published yesterday

A giant whirlpool of light, known as a "SpaceX spiral," was recently spotted swirling across the night sky over Europe as a Falcon 9 rocket prepared to reenter Earth's atmosphere after deploying top-secret cargo.

Comments ( 3 )

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Photo of a large blue swirl of light in the sky captured by a backyard camera
The giant luminous swirl was seen clearly across large parts of England. This striking video was captured from Billingborough, Lincolnshire. (Image credit: Simon Minnican/@minnican.bluesky.social)

On Monday (March 24), a giant swirl of light was spotted floating across the night sky in Europe like an ethereal whirlpool. The baffling light show wasn't caused by aliens, as some speculated, but a dying SpaceX rocket preparing to crash back to Earth, shortly after deploying secret cargo into orbit around our planet.

At around 8 p.m. local time (4 p.m. ET), people across the U.K. reported seeing the luminous swirl grow as it slowly streaked across the sky like something from a sci-fi movie, according to the BBC. The light show was most clearly visible above parts of England, including Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Leicestershire, Suffolk and Essex, as well as in Wales and further afield in Sweden, Croatia, Poland, and Hungary.

Photographer Simon Minnican captured the ethereal scene in a stunning video that showed a bright spot appear and then grow in size before swelling into an ever-expanding vortex. The entire spectacle lasted around 12 minutes, with the spiral of light dissipating roughly 4 minutes after it unfurled.
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There was initially some wild speculation about what had caused the unusual light show, with at least one observer blaming UFOs. However, experts quickly pointed out that it was a "SpaceX spiral" — an increasingly common phenomenon triggered by light reflecting off rocket fuel dumped into space by spinning SpaceX rockets before they reenter Earth's atmosphere.

In this case, the spacecraft responsible for the luminous swirl was a Falcon 9 rocket that had launched from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 1:48 p.m. ET, more than 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) from where the bright spiral was later spotted. This rocket was carrying a secret payload for the National Reconnaissance Office, according to Live Science's sister site Space.com.

Related: SpaceX rockets keep tearing blood-red 'atmospheric holes' in the sky, and scientists are concerned



Photo of a large blue swirl of light in the sky captured by a backyard camera
SpaceX spirals are caused by Falcon 9 rocket stages dumping their remaining fuel in space before reentry. (Image credit: Simon Minnican/@minnican.bluesky.social)

SpaceX spirals occur when the second stage of a Falcon 9 rocket de-orbits and prepares to reenter Earth's atmosphere, where it either burns up or falls into the ocean. During this maneuver, the spacecraft dumps its remaining fuel into space, which then freezes into a cloud of tiny crystals that reflect sunlight to Earth. The second stage is normally spinning when the fuel is released, which is what causes the spiral shape of the resulting cloud — and explains why the vortex continually expands before dissipating.
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These spirals were once rare but are becoming more common as the number of Falcon 9 rocket launches increases.



Photo of a large blue swirl of light in the sky captured by a backyard camera
(Image credit: Simon Minnican/@minnican.bluesky.social)
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—SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket grounded for the 3rd time in 3 months following 'off-nominal' crash-landing in the ocean

—'Catastrophic' SpaceX Starship explosion tore a hole in the atmosphere last year in 1st-of-its-kind event, Russian scientists reveal

—Dying SpaceX rocket creates eerily-perfect 'dashed' line in new photos. What's going on?

One of the most recent examples was a never-before-seen "horned" spiral reported in May 2024 above parts of Europe. In April 2023, a stunning blue SpaceX spiral photobombed an aurora display above Alaska. The phenomenon has also been spotted twice by a camera attached to the Subaru Telescope on Hawaii's Mauna Kea; first in April 2022 and again in January 2023.

Not every Falcon 9 reentry results in a visible SpaceX spiral. But amateur astronomers can sometimes predict when they are likely to occur based on the rocket's trajectory, payload, spin rate and the time of the launch.

However, in this case, the launch information was not shared in advance because of the secrecy of the mission.
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[Rocket J Squrriel]

There were a bunch of UFO sightings in Russia and Scandinavia I recall after launches from Plesetsk. That was before most people even knew the launch site was there.

[Belushi TD]

Why do they vent fuel in space? Why not wait until at least in the upper atmosphere so we can be sure its not going to deleteriously affect other satelites? Or do I not understand how orbital mechanics works?

Thanks
Belushi TD

[gtg947h]

Why do they vent fuel in space? Why not wait until at least in the upper atmosphere so we can be sure its not going to deleteriously affect other satelites? Or do I not understand how orbital mechanics works?

I'm not privy to SpaceX specifics, but on a low orbit launch you're going to make a burn to put the upper stage on a disposal path (basically to re-enter into the ocean). The prop dump would take place at that point; any gases will VERY rapidly disperse and sublimate and any liquids would freeze and reenter alongside the stage because it's still basically on the same trajectory. I'd imagine that LOX is dumped and the RP pressurization gas is vented. I bet SpaceX just vents the pressurant out the normal vent, and dumps LOX by vectoring the nozzle and just opening the feed valves.

On a GEO launch I think they put the stage into a safe disposal orbit then vent the LOX and pressurants. Again, it disperses quite quickly. What you really don't want is a stage overpressurizing (say, you're unable to make a disposal burn and the planned depressurization doesn't work). That releases lots of tiny metal debris and that's bad.

[Belushi TD]

I would assume there's a large difference in the velocity of the gas being vented rather than burned. It doesn't stay around in a cloud of density that would be unpleasant for an oncoming satellite?

Still seems to me that it would be better to burn it and send the rocket towards a speedier demise. I get that you can end up overpressureing your fuel tanks, but wouldn't that only be an issue when you start hitting enough atmosphere to heat the rocket? At which point, wouldn't you be deep enough in the atmosphere to keep all the little metal bits from entering orbit?

Again, I have an extremely limited understanding of orbital mechanics.

Belushi TD

[kdahm]

I would assume there's a large difference in the velocity of the gas being vented rather than burned. It doesn't stay around in a cloud of density that would be unpleasant for an oncoming satellite?

Still seems to me that it would be better to burn it and send the rocket towards a speedier demise. I get that you can end up overpressureing your fuel tanks, but wouldn't that only be an issue when you start hitting enough atmosphere to heat the rocket? At which point, wouldn't you be deep enough in the atmosphere to keep all the little metal bits from entering orbit?

Again, I have an extremely limited understanding of orbital mechanics.

Belushi TD

Nope. Essentially, venting it means that it rapidly dissipates as a gas and becomes individual atoms and molecules scattered over hundreds of cubic meters very rapidly. Even the ice crystals will sublimate quickly. The orbital path to get to the disposal site is very precise from a given starting orbit location and velocity, and it's really not the case that you can speed it up by going faster. It'll just make the upper stage go further before it re-enters.

Also, the amount of fuel and oxidizer isn't that precisely calculated. The engines are throttled based on acceleration, not fuel flow, so one rocket will take more to get to the desired orbit than another. They load on a bit extra to account for that, possibly having to make another burn if the trajectory isn't nominal, and general better to have it than not. If they tried a last burn to drop the stage where they want it, they won't know for sure how much fuel, and thus how much acceleration they actually have, until the gas runs out. Like calculating that you'll have five miles left in the tank in backcountry Alaska when you get to the next gas station.

They could leave it in the tanks during re-entry. Which then means they could get an upper atmosphere kablooey like the last two starship upper stages, instead of a mostly intact body hitting the water. I'd rather not have a lot of aluminium rain.