NORFOLK, Va. — People across our viewing area began contacting 13News Now shortly after 7:30 Saturday evening after seeing a light in the sky.
Most indicated they thought it was a meteor, but it turns out that SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral at 7:32 p.m., and its launch trajectory took it up the East Coast of the U.S., making it clearly visible in the evening sky.
According to NASA Spaceflight, this mission, labeled Starlink Group 4-35, marks SpaceX’s 43rd mission of 2022 and 15th mission in the year’s second half – a rate of launching a mission every 6.2 days and 5.7 days, respectively.
13News Now viewers sent us several videos and pictures from various locations around the area.
According to SpaceX, his was the fourth launch and landing for this Falcon 9 first stage booster, which previously launched SES-22 and now three Starlink missions.
This launch comes on the same day that NASA postponed their planned launch of the Artemis 1 rocket because of the approaching tropical system named Ian after the National Hurricane Center predicted that Ian will make landfall on the west coast of Florida later this week possibly as a Category 3 hurricane.