RAMSEY, N.J. (1010 WINS) -- Did you see it spinning across the sky Tuesday night?
Social media was awash with photos and videos of a mysterious, glowing spiral over a swath of the East Coast around 10:30 p.m. Sightings were reported from Florida to Vermont, including in New Jersey.
"What the f*** is that?" said Eddie Pikulski as he recorded the phenomenon in North Jersey. "I mean that's the craziest thing I've ever seen."
Cynthia Zonneveld was walking her dog in Ramsey, Bergen County, when she saw the large object spinning in the sky.
“At first, I thought, ‘Oh, they’re ready to take me home,’” she said.
“I knew it wasn’t a plane, because a plane actually passed by it, so it was a different altitude, obviously,” Zonneveld said. “Not a drone—I know what the drones look like from last year.”
Indeed—despite New Jersey making headlines last year for numerous "drone" sightings, this object was likely a rocket carrying an experimental navigation satellite that launched about an hour earlier from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket took off around 9 p.m. to carry the national security payload on a mission collectively referred to as U.S. Space Force (USSF)-106.
“It’s an exciting day for us as we launched the first NSSL flight of Vulcan, an outstanding achievement for United Launch Alliance and the nation’s strategic space lift capability. This is an important milestone for the Space Force and all involved,” Col. Jim Horne, USSF-106 mission director, said in a statement Wednesday.
