Rocket Display on the 6th of May

I was out for a walk early this morning when I saw my neighbor looking up at the sky.

“I’m out for the rocket launch,” he said.

I didn’t know about a launch. If I had seen a report on it, I had not made a mental note of it. I sometimes do for major ones because I live within viewing distance of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida (about 60 miles, depending on the weather and time of the launch). This one, I discovered later, was a Space X launch of 53 Starlink satellites. In any event, I looked up and saw a moving red dot. Then, things got a bit weird. I’d never seen a show like this before.

Space X rocket launch 6 May 2022

I kept watching. It got weirder. The moving dot seemed to dip down, although this probably was just how it appeared from my perspective as it was heading away from me.

Although the rocket itself must have disappeared over the horizon, the show wasn’t over. Suddenly, the sky began to glow. It was really pretty cool, like something out of mythology.

Impressive, I thought, as I continued my walk, keeping an eye on the sky to see if there was more to come. There was.

This last image was taken about 15 or 20 minutes later. It shows the vapor trail from an airplane bisecting what’s left of the trail from the rocket. (My house is also about a half-hour drive from Orlando International Airport.)

Also, petty cool. So, that’s what happened on my walk this morning. Normally, they’re not so noteworthy.