By Laura Swanson
News channels and social media literally “lit up” Thursday night with videos and photos from the North Oregon Coast, the valley, Seattle and Eastern Washington of “something” streaking across the sky to the East and “burning up” as it went. Several people reported a window-shaking sonic bomb just before seeing the “fireworks-like” display at about 9 pm Pacific Time. First identified by many as a meteor, further research provided the answers. And here’s what Tillamook County Emergency Manager Gordon McCraw reported on Friday March 26th:
“Last Night’s Fireball was NOT a Meteor …
It appears many people in the Pacific Northwest saw a fireball with a few people reporting a loud boom at the same time.
So, with some research I have found it was a Falcon 9 second stage rocket that was launched by Space X about 22 days ago to deliver another Starlink Satellite. The rocket failed to reignite so ended up reentering the atmosphere last night as it streaked across.
Reports have been received from Salem, Portland, into SW Washington including Seattle, and of course, Tillamook. What was witnessed was the rocket burning and falling apart as it reentered the atmosphere. There appears to be no reports of any damage anywhere which suggest the rocket totally burned up on reentry.”
Here is a compilation of videos from throughout Tillamook County of Falcon 9 rocket burning across our sky – thanks to Ann Parish Harper, Brendalee Tapuro, Betsy Norvald, Lauren and Matt Hunter for providing videos: