SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lights up Puerto Rico’s sky with an impressive trail

A Falcon 9 rocket of the company spacexilluminated the sky over Puerto Rico this Sunday, and left an impressive trail of light during its climb into orbit, it has been confirmed eddie rizarry roblesPresident of Scientific Dissemination of the Caribbean Astronomy Society Caribbean Astronomy Society (SAC), To new day.

The rocket will originally take off from Cape Canaveral State FloridaHowever, its launch was postponed to 6:35 pm, a time which, according to Irizarry Robles, proved to be the perfect moment for an even more extraordinary spectacle than on other occasions.

“Since takeoff happened very close to the evening, we were going to have the advantage that the rocket trail would always be illuminated, not only by the propellant, but also because, at the altitude at which the rocket was going to be rocketed, there was going to be sunlight.” , so the path was going to be brighter for us.”The scientific communicator explained.

At the time it was spotted by Puerto Ricans, the rocket was at an altitude of about 112 miles over Puerto Rico. Their presence seemed so close and, to some extent, this is due to a curious fact shared by Irizarry Robles.

Earlier, SpaceX company had launched its rockets towards the Atlantic Ocean. However, starting in early 2020, the company started launching these toward Puerto Rico. According to the former chairman of SAC, this not only allowed them to place the satellites in the desired orbit, but also gave them an advantage: recovering the rocket’s first stage.

Irizarry Robles explained that, during this stage, the rocket appears as if it is landing upside down, so a robotic boat or platform must be placed to retrieve it. In the past, these boats were located in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean towards the north-east.

However, when SpaceX decided to launch in the direction of Puerto Rico, it calculated that, if they located these platforms in calm waters, such as in the direction of the Bahamas Islands, the robotic boat would be more established, Therefore there will be a greater chance of the rocket recovering its first stage.

Falcon 9 will carry 23 additional Starlink satellites into space to provide satellite internet.

For their part, it did not take long for citizens to take to social networks to share their excitement after seeing the spectacular trail of light, the product of the launch of the Falcon 9.