UFOs Over Australia

Well, people thought they were UFOs at least.

The first incident was the Falcon 9 rocket, which was the first test launch of the rocket design by independent space company “Space-X”. The rocket was launched on June 4, 2010, made it into orbit and produced a “lollipop-type spiral” over Australia in the early morning.

Understandably, not many people knew what the lights were, and many UFO reports were made. But the flight path of Falcon 9 matches up perfectly with the time of the sightings.

Sorry folks. No aliens.

Most recently was the re-entry of the Japanese space agency’s craft Hayabusa. The craft ended a 7 year round trip journey to asteroid Ikotawa, and (hopefully!) brought back some asteroid dust for us to study.

The main craft burned up in the atmosphere on June 13, 2010, leaving only the 40 cm wide capsule containing the asteroid sample intact as it landed in the Australian outback.

Hayabusa Sample Pod Landed Safely in the Australian Outback

The re-entry of Hayabusa was captured by an aerial camera mounted on a DC-8 flying over Australia, and produced this stunning video.

Damn Australians get all the good light shows. Maybe I’ll get to see a UFO one day…