Mystery lights in the sky were SpaceX rocket

Was it a comet… a missile… a UFO? The ABC 7 phone lines were busy last night after a mysterious bright light streaked at a steady pace through the desert sky. Viewers from Las Cruces to El Paso witnessed the event and contacted us through social media and over the phone.

The streaking light was actually the Space-X missile Falcon 9 Rocket. It delivered the Argentine satellite SAOCOM 1A into orbit in about 12 minutes after liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base, 160 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

It’s a first for SpaceX on the West Coast, and Falcon 9’s first stage returned to base, where it landed safely about eight minutes after takeoff. SpaceX is the private company owned by Elon Musk.

This is not the first time people in the borderland have witnessed similar sights. SpaceX has launched several rockets in the past year, and every time, viewers send in their photos and videos of strange lights in the sky.