Predawn rocket launch makes spectacular view over SWFL

FORT MYERS, Fla. – A rocket launch from Cape Canaveral created spectacular views early Wednesday morning all because of good timing.

“It looked like a UFO,” one teen said.

“Honestly I didn’t know what it was, I swear I probably thought it was an alien creature,” Tricia Davis said.

The rocket flew over the earth at the crack of dawn and looked like a blue streak with a halo around it.

“It was fantastic!” Heather Preston, the Director of Planetarium at the Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium said. She explained that the rocket launch looked especially spectacular all because the sun hadn’t risen yet.

“The earth was dark but as the rocket ascended it got above the point where the sunlight was slanting and so it got into full sunlight before those five solid rocket boosters popped off,” Preston said.

As Atlas V took off, it began dropping the parts it no longer needed which created the corkscrew-like clouds; something that normally happens, but given the time of day, we could actually see it.