Those who heard a loud boom or saw a fiery streak through the sky Saturday night from and around the Santa Clarita Valley likely witnessed SpaceX’s unpiloted spacecraft, Dragon, as it reentered Earth’s atmosphere, a SpaceX social media post indicated.
According to a post on X just after 10 p.m. on Saturday, SpaceX Dragon was on track to splash down off the southern coast of California near Oceanside at 10:44 p.m. Numerous X users, including some in Santa Clarita, responded to the social media post with replies that they heard the sonic boom. Some wrote that the boom startled them, while others asked if it was an earthquake.
A May 23 NASA report detailed the mission in which SpaceX Dragon launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket on April 21 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Dragon reached the International Space Station on April 22, delivering about 6,700 pounds of crew supplies, science investigations and equipment.
On Friday, the NASA report read, Dragon undocked from the space station and began its return to Earth.
A May 25 report from NASA confirmed the splashdown off the coast of California at 10:44 p.m. It was, the report read, SpaceX’s 32nd commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station.
