By VICKI BROWN vbrown@lowcountry.com A strange light appeared in the nighttime sky over Walterboro on April 7. The light seemed to burn, and then drop down over the city. Alarmed, some Colleton residents began questioning the phenomena on Facebook and even called local Channel 2 Meteorologist Rob Fowler in Charleston to find out if anyone knew where the light had come from. At first, Fowler said that he had no idea what the light was. He stated that it was not a weather balloon or a lightning bolt, and after seeing the pictures he admitted that the light was “freaky.” The light appeared to be a bright, fiery ball with a tail trailing after it. After a little research, it was discovered that the lights came from the fuselage of a rocket that was launched at Cape Canaveral in Florida. According to an announcement by SpaceX, the rocket was a part of the Space Launch.” “On Wednesday, April 7 at 12:34 p.m. EDT, SpaceX launched 60 Starlink satellites using the Falcon 9 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida,” the SpaceX report states. According to SpaceX reports, the Falcon 9 is a reusable, two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX. It is the world’s first orbital class reusable rocket, and was designed for the reliable and safe transport of people and payloads into Earth orbit and beyond. Falcon 9 Reusability allows SpaceX to refly the expensive parts of the rocket, which lowers the cost of space travel. The satellites were sent into space by Starlink, a satellite internet constellation being constructed by SpaceX providing satellite Internet access. In other words…they are looking to provide better internet and phone service for users across the world. But what specifically caused the strange lights in the night? According to NASA, because of the large amount of fuel needed at liftoff, rockets are typically designed with two or more fuel stages or engines. When the fuel is used up in each stage, that portion of the rocket is discarded and drops off. It usually burns up in the atmosphere. While it appears that the fiery debris is landing close to home, it is actually far away. Dropping through the atmosphere burns up most of the debris into tiny portions or ash. People in Oklahoma and Texas reported similar occurrences of seeing strange lights in the night sky. Firemen, policemen and the media were actually called by concerned citizens. When will it happen again? The next Rocket Launch will be on April 22, 2021. SpaceX Falcon 9 will launch four astronauts aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
