Chances for Sky watchers to mark Private Rocket Are Slim

With the recent successful start of a new private rocket, called Falcon 9, and a space capsule mock-up from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Station, some sky watchers might be wondering if it will be consistently visible from the ground like many other bright artificial satellite. That resolve comes from some of the die-hard satellite observers, who just last month were able to locate and then track the U.S. Air Force's secret X-37B space plane.

Observers from about the world have since been able to get views of the X-37B as it moved across the twilight sky with the brightness of a moderately bright star. That vehicle is orbiting approximately 250 statute miles above Earth, inclined 40 degrees to the Earth's equator.But catching a sight of the Falcon 9 rocket, which launched Friday from Florida, is more difficult, in part due to a much lower orbital altitude of 155 statute miles, as well as a lower orbital inclination of 34.5 degrees. These two factors limit visibility to a much smaller area.

However, the Falcon 9 rocket built by the California-based company Space Exploration Technologies may have had one last hurrah following its successful maiden start last week. Before fading into the background of space, the rocket likely was answerable for a short-lived – but dazzling – spiral of light seen over parts of Australia that spawned a flurry of UFO reports, according to Australian news reports.