That wasn’t a meteor: Returning SpaceX craft lights up Bay Area sky

(KRON) — Multiple people around the Bay Area reported seeing a possible “meteor” streaking across the sky Saturday around 10:37 p.m.

The fireball was actually a SpaceX Dragon, an unmanned spacecraft returning from delivering supplies to the International Space Station, NASA wrote on its website Sunday. The SpaceX Dragon undocked from the International Space Station on May 23. According to SpaceX, the Dragon reentered Earth’s atmosphere just south of the Bay Area and splashed down near Oceanside, Calif. Saturday night around 10:44 p.m.

“The unpiloted SpaceX Dragon spacecraft splashed down off the coast of California, marking the return of the company’s 32nd commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station for NASA,” NASA wrote.

The SpaceX Dragon launched on April 21 and reached the International Space Station on April 22. The supplies were launched on a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“For more than 24 years, people have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge, and conducting critical research for the benefit of humanity and our home planet,” NASA wrote. “Space station research supports the future of human spaceflight as NASA looks toward deep space missions to the Moon under the Artemis campaign and in preparation for future human missions to Mars, as well as expanding commercial opportunities in low Earth orbit and beyond.”