On Saturday, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched 52 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The sight was ethereal, and people are saying it left them ‘dumbfounded’.
Later in the day, the amazing pictures were taken 37,000ft above the Atlantic Ocean.
Staff Sergeant Christian Magliocca said he and his crew were ‘confused’ after having a look at an unidentified appearance of light from the deck of their massive transport aircraft.
The 15th Airlift Squadron loadmaster said: ‘These pictures were taken at 37,000ft from the flight deck of a C-17 Globemaster III somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.
‘We saw it coming over the horizon and were really confused as to what it could be.
‘At first, we thought it was the Artemis Launch that keeps getting pushed back.’
Staff Sgt. Magliocca added: ‘For us, the event lasted around ten minutes from start to finish. Truly a spectacle.
‘I’m a loadmaster on the C17 so my role is all things related to the cargo compartment of the aircraft.
‘The pilots and my other load flying partner were absolutely dumbfounded.
‘I think I speak for all of us when I say that we will never forget it for as long as we live.’
These SpaceX launches have also been misidentified as UFOs by people multiple times in the past.
In June, a mysterious blue spiral traveling across New Zealand’s skies took people by surprise as they related it to aliens.
The spiraling plume of the gas lit up the sky over Nelson, a city at the tip of New Zealand’s South Island and traveled 750km south to Stewart Island.
However, experts later revealed that the phenomenon was a result of space junk in the form of a dying rocket launched by Musk’s company.