Winter tourists at Disney World in Orlando, Florida caught a glimpse of a ‘glowing red’ UFO streaking upward in the night sky like a falling star in reverse.
A parkgoer was capturing the scene inside Epcot when the crowd turned and began pointing to the illuminated object in the sky.
The video was posted on social media where users are sure the object was an ‘orb’-like unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP) of extraterrestrial origin.
One user on X commented: ‘Yet more even bizarre aerial phenomena witnessed again by tens of thousands of people. They’ clearly want us to all see it now…’
While the bizarre sighting may have sparked fears of an alien encounter, others on social media were quick to point out that the glowing streak was likely a SpaceX rocket that launched from Cape Canaveral.
The clip was taken on December 16 and a Falcon 9 rocket blasted off that night at 7:52pm ET.
After stunning Disney parkgoers with the spectacle, Falcon 9’s reusable first stage booster reportedly came back to Earth about 8.5 minutes after launch — executing a landing on the drone ship ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’ in the Atlantic.
Winter tourists at Disney World in Orlando caught a glimpse of a ‘glowing red’ UFO streaking upward in the night sky like a falling star in reverse. ‘Look what’s in the skies about EPCOT tonight!!’ one park patron posted to social media, pointing in wonder at the apparent craft
Amateur investigators to Disney World’s glowing red UFO have been baffled: ‘I’ve seen a lot of shooting stars,’ one observer posted. ‘None have ever glowed red. It’s not a shooting star. It’s not firework’
The Falcon 9 rocket launched as part of mission RRT-1, an effort that included the transport of an advanced GPS satellite into orbit for the US military branch.
SpaceX is currently under contract to launch three of these GPS-3 satellites in total, with the first launched nearly a year prior, back in January 2023.
Below the original TikTok video of the odd sight about Disney World’s EPCOT Center, posted by user @DisneyDads, some locals were keen to share their familiarity with what a SpaceX launch looks like locally.
‘That’s Space X,’ former Disney theme park employee Brandon Harper posted to the video. ‘I live in Orlando, eight miles from Disney.’
But that did not stop others from proposing more exotic theories.
‘Google US Navy Laser Creates Plasma ‘UFOs,” one TikTok user advised.
‘They are using the plasma balls to create heat to attract heat seeking missiles instead of hitting our drones. Our drones are testing.’
Soon other Disney fans – who were facing away from the unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP) – can be seen swiveling their heads to see the strange sight with their own eyes
Another user simply posted: ‘Santa.’
The episode appears to be just one of multiple cases from this month when a SpaceX launch was visible from the Magic Kingdom.
A park patron, who goes by Armand Luigi, Esq. on social site X.com, visited Disney on December 23, 2024 and reported seeing a similar eerie red glowing streak across the sky that was timed to SpaceX’s mission to launch 21 Starlink satellites late that night.
The apparent rocket flames are visible in the video, even through the red haze of the park’s nearby tiki torch flames.
‘I was there and took this video in Epcot, Disney WORLD,’ Luigi said in his post. ‘We looked it up while it was happening, and it was a SpaceX Launch.’
Many still remain unconvinced that the object has been concretely identified however, with one observer claiming the video was a forgery: ‘It’s called CGI,’ he said.
