It wasn’t a UFO, but it was an even more riveting sight when viewers looked up to the sky on March 25.
In videos submitted to KSAT Connect, viewers showed bright light emitting a circular smoke into the air on Monday night.
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Momma Em’s Cleaning
Got to see this with my husband Sal Ramos last night.This was out in Von Ormy by 1604 and IH 35 Southwest area at 8:16 pm.Wish we knew what it was🧐.
AngeeSalay
My dad caught this on his way home from work around 8:30 pm near 410 and Sinclair. It was the 3rd one he saw.
Taylor Mcclelland
Was walking home from Woodlawn Lake and saw what looks like space debris entering earths atmosphere, couldn't get my phone out fast enough to catch it when it entered our atmosphere and you could see the smoke.
What people saw was another batch of Starlink satellites launched by Space X Falcon 9 from Florida, which have been a common site in the sky since the U.S. Federal Communications Commission gave SpaceX permission to launch an astounding 12,000 satellites into orbit in 2018. It will cost SpaceX $10 billion in order to see the Starlink satellite constellation fully realized, according to Reuters.
This story in October of last year by Jordan Ross detailed further the number of satellites being launched, how long they last and what happens after they expire.
The satellites travel in a line — a Starlink train — until they reach their operating altitude before separating. These satellites provide internet coverage across the globe, and in most remote locations that standard Wi-Fi does not typically reach.
SpaceX said the rocket launched out of Cape Canaveral, Fla. It then circled the Earth and passed over Texas making it easy to spot.
According to KSAT Meteorologists Justin Horne and Adam Caskey, the plume that viewers saw might have been a second-stage rocket burn, or the release of Starlink satellites into orbit.
That release is called the “jellyfish effect” and is visible because the setting sun illuminates it.