Bright propellant dump visible over the UK tonight

[Nick James]

A bright propellant dump cloud was visible from the UK this evening at around 1955 UTC and has been widely reported. From Chelmsford it rose above the northern horizon at around 1953. Here’s the video from a camera in Chelmsford, UK looking NW. The clip starts at 19:53:15 UTC on 2025-03-24. The sky was very hazy but the stars of Cassiopeia are visible at the top.

http://nickdjames.com/Spacecraft/UK004D_20250324_1953_ndj.mp4

This was probably a propellant dump from the Falcon 9 upper stage that launched NROL-69 from Florida at 17:48 UTC today.

[Jeremy Shears]

Pretty impressive sight. I was emerging from my observatory, which has its door on the N side, at saw it as I looked up.
iPhone pic here: https://britastro.org/observations/observation.php?id=20250324_214542_63483fe3de3e8a2e

I also caught it on my N facing meteor camera.

[Dawson]

We got it in Nottingham too on the all sky camera and both meteor cameras:

https://youtu.be/Pm4pqW7jNaY?si=zqSEIPv6M1a9R0kZ

[Alex Pratt]

Rather bad timing for me – I was concentrating on recording an asteroidal occultation centred on 19:52 UT and sensor board failures meant a couple of my meteor cameras are currently hors de combat.

However, I saw the concentric rings forming at high elevation to my north, transforming into a jellyfish as it progressed to the east and its tour de force was an impersonation of a bright pale blue spiral galaxy. Your images and videos portray it very well.

More space junk, yet a spectacular sight.

Alex.

[Nick James]

I wish I’d seen it. One of the disadvantages of observing from indoors!

Alex – The whole point of the propellant dump was to avoid creation of space junk. It ensures that the stage did not break up due to tank overpressure and, in any case, the stage de-orbited into the Indian Ocean.

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