Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it Superman? Not this time, it’s SpaceX! Headed by private space travel pundit Elon Musk. What may look like an alien spacecraft flying around was actually another SpaceX rocket launch from California.  

Physics teacher, Mr. Smolka knew all about it.

After the rocket made it to space, they deployed a Tesla roadster for the flight as a sponsor of Tesla and had a starman mannequin riding the roadster. He exclaimed about the rocket and the roadster, “this is amazing also ridiculous and the way they put the starman was ridiculous.” He thought this was a major step towards the future of space exploration and technology as  it showed how launches can be much cheaper and efficient if rockets were reused for space travel

On December 23 2017, Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, and his crew launched a Falcon 9 rocket out of California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. Many believed that they were UFOs flying and even Musk joked about a supposed “Nuclear alien UFO from North Korea” leaving others left in confusion.

Now what is SpaceX? It is a private aerospace technology company created by Elon Musk and funded by NASA in 2002. SpaceX has two spacecraft family designs known as Falcon and Dragon. Their main goal is to achieve colonization on Mars and reducing space transportation costs.  This company has been launching many projects already and have been very successful with their missions.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 Heavy rocket was launched thirty minutes before sunset on December 23rd. The goal was to carry 10 Iridium Next communications satellites into orbit but to also show that they can do this in space. The mission was successful, with all 10 satellites reaching their intended orbits. However, it wasn’t a complete success as their third fuel tank blew out, but it still succeeded when it landed back at home base. 

Many people all around the nation saw this launch and many thought there were aliens amongst us or some foreign object from somewhere else. Many people were amazed by the site of the rocket launch, saying it was spectacular and phenomenal. iSchool junior, Desaun Robinson stated, “I really wasn’t sure what it was like an alien UFO but then I reached to Smolka, he told me what it was and it made much more sense to me and it was cool.”

An anonymous source stated their first initial thoughts on the rocket was “I thought it was an alien spaceship ready to destroy us.” Many people had various reactions to what is this and what is to come of this. Some people thought it was an invasion of some sort. Others thought it was a beautiful sight to behold and shows progression for space exploration.

Even iSchool freshman Thomas Bajor stated, “I think it’s revolutionary that Elon musk made this for space technology.” But all around it’s just a space rocket launched by SpaceX for the progression of space exploration.