The mysterious blue spiral lit up the night sky across Europe on March 24, 2025! Indeed, it wasn’t aliens or a UFO, but rather a fascinating byproduct of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch. The rocket took off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida earlier that day, around 1:48 PM EDT (5:48 PM GMT), on a classified mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NROL-69).
What caused the stunning spiral? After deploying its payload, the rocket’s second stage vented its leftover fuel as it spun back toward Earth. At the high altitude where this happens, the fuel freezes instantly into ice crystals, which then catch sunlight—still visible from space even though it was nighttime in Europe. The spinning motion of the rocket gave the frozen fuel a swirling, galaxy-like pattern, creating the glowing blue spectacle seen from the UK to Poland.
This phenomenon, often called a “SpaceX spiral,” isn’t entirely new—similar sightings have popped up over places like Hawaii, New Zealand, and Alaska after past launches. With SpaceX ramping up its launch frequency, these cosmic light shows might just become a more familiar sight. Pretty cool, right, Kinjal?
