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Canada’s national space agency says a strange blurred object seen across B.C. and Alberta last week is consistent with a SpaceX rocket launch from California that same night.
Between about 10:15 and 10:30 p.m. PT on May 5, multiple residents reported seeing a large white shape slowly move across the horizon before disappearing from view.
While the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) says it does not play a role in identifying unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) — the category of unknown observances that used to be called UFOs — it says its engineering team determined the sighting was consistent with a SpaceX rocket launch from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
WATCH | People across B.C. shared video of the shape:
‘I thought it was the moon’: Unknown object floats through B.C. skies
People across B.C. were left scratching their heads between about 10:15 and 10:30 p.m. PT on May 5 when they witnessed something float through the sky before disappearing. Guesses as to what it was range from a weather balloon to a SpaceX rocket to something a little more out of this world.
“Engineers say the timing and location are consistent with a deorbit burn, fuel venting, or other upper-stage maneuvers that can create glowing clouds visible from the ground,” a spokesperson for the CSA said in an email.
The spokesperson said its satellite operations engineers reviewed images gathered by the public and determined what they filmed was likely a “space jellyfish.”
“A space jellyfish can appear when a rocket performs propulsion maneuvers, releasing clouds of propellant that refract sunlight under the right atmospheric conditions,” the spokesperson said.
WATCH | The shape floats across the sky:
Strange shape seen in B.C. sky
Patricia Seymour was one of dozens of people to observe this shape moving across the horizon on the night of May 5, 2026.