[youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5YyV-oipFwl” width=”500″ height=”300″]
On September 1 a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded during a test run at the Cape Canaveral Space launch center. Elon Musk said after the explosion: “Loss of Falcon vehicle today during propellant fill operation. Originated around upper stage oxygen tank. Cause still unknown.”A video of the explosion by USLaunchReport has caused speculation that some sort of UFO or drone was to blame. In the video you can see a very fast-moving object appear at 1:11 on the right at the moment the rocket explodes. It disappears on the left.
The video also shows birds flying in the background. Their movement is very different from that of the unknown object. Most important, though,, is the speed the object appears to be traveling– too fast to be a bird, too fast to be a drone. Maybe.
SpaceX has not yet commented on the sighting to explain what it is and if it has anything to do with the explosion.
This is a slow motion playback of the video:
[youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arIc1NlHvV0″ width=”500″ height=”300″]
SpaceX was scheduled for a Falcon 9 launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday September 3 at 3am local time. Pre-launch testing was taking place on the 1st to prepare for the September 3 blast-off. Word is the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was supposed to carry an AMOS-6 communications satellite for Spacecom of Israel, which was to be used for supporting existing services in the Ku- and Ka-band for the Middle East, and providing free internet for sub-Saharan Africa and parts of India. It is part of facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg’s internet.org initiative.
