NUFORC Sighting 164134

Occurred: 2021-05-05 02:15 Local
Reported: 2021-07-22 16:07 Pacific
Duration: 2 minutes 30 seconds
No of observers: 1

Location: Everett, WA, USA

Shape: Cross
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object

T-shaped white light silently zoomed across horizon then stopped on a dime, with a red halo appearing and disappearing

At 2:15 am, July 5th, I stepped outside on our back deck to smoke and observed an incredibly bright, and fast moving lowercase t-shaped white light traveling across the horizon.

It was already at a quick speed by the time I initially viewed it. Traveling West to East, it was far brighter and faster than a satellite, and the same would hold true for an airplane.

It struck me as an odd time to launch a rocket, given how many people were blowing off fireworks that night, however, after watching filmed rocket launches several times this year while researching Spacex’s Starlink launches, Blue Origin, and Rocketlab launches, I felt like I was probably watching a night time rocket launch.

The only two or three peculiar things were that it was completely silent, although I could easily have been watching something that was 400 miles away, because of how light travels, and I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference; and it didn’t leave an exhaust plume.

However it was nighttime, and its absolutely possible that the exhaust plume wasn’t visible in the night sky, nor at a relative height to be able to reflect light off of the sun. Hell, if I could do the math, that probably wouldn’t even be an option.

Regardless, I watch the light zoom all the way across the horizon in about 90 seconds, saying to myself’ “What a treat, this is amazing!” The horizontal line of the t shape had become significantly stretched out, while the vertical line, from my position, stayed equal length to what it originally was.

It’s about to go behind the tree line, so I sprint from the back deck, through the house, and out the front door to hide behind the car and watch this weird light continue on its path across the horizon.

I’m scratching my head, when the light just stops moving abruptly. I watch it become enveloped by clouds, but it has an immensely striking lightness shining through the cloud. There were 3 or 4 visible stars in the initially cloudless, and now nearly entirely cloud-covered night sky.

Western Washington has very fast changing weather and variability in in vapor pressure, but what really struck me was how bright the still light was behind the clouds. Far brighter than the moon. So significantly brighter than the stars I really had to wonder about it.

I observe the abruptly still white light dim completely away, and then like how a lighthouse light becomes visible in the mist as it spins around back into view, the light went back to full luminosity in exactly the same still position, although this time with a red ring around it. Both of which eventually diminish into blank, dark nighttime sky.

At the bar a few days later, while discussing the bizarreness of the experience with the bartender, a young man of about 30-35 entered the conversation and told me he worked for a subsidiary of Raytheon, shooting 1-30 mHz waves into the clouds in order to gather data on encrypted messaging information, and told me his work schedule had been delayed by a series or prototypical rocket launches being carried out under Amazon’s Project Kuiper, from the Seattle area.

He believed I witness first stage booster separation, ignition of the second stage engine, and simultaneous reignition of the first stage booster as it was landed back in the greater Seattle Area, giving greater possibility to why I watched the light stop midair, disappear, and then reappear with a red halo, then decrescendo into darkness.

Now, whether or not that is the answer, which I feel is on pretty slim evidence, given that launch schedules are planned out years in advance, and I couldn’t find any corroborating evidence to say that Project Kuiper has already done prototype launches, I still am holding out strong feelings for a government-related, man-made object to be the explation for this.

I’ve spent a significant amount of time researching orbital reentry as well, and although it doesn’t exhibit the typical characteristics of boosters or rockets breaking up on reentry, I did find info on possible entry times of a Chinese-based Long March rocket, CZ-2F that was predicted to re-enter above Washington state within 4 days of of my t-shaped light observation, with a plus or minus of 26 hours. However there were no reported sightings of the re-entry, so its possible it may have been slightly miscalculated.

I’ve also considered the possibility of it being a Navy-related government drone, given that I live within 5 miles of a nationally used Navy Base, although that would be one hell of a light they threw on that sucker.

I’ve sort of ruled out a really long lasting firework, given that I used to make the stars (the expanding or fast moving colored lights) that go inside or mortar fireworks. There are compounds like titanium or magnesium that can give that long lasting exhaust flare, but there is always a smoke trail to accompany it. And I’ve also never seen a firework trail last longer than about thirty seconds at the very max.

Your guess is as good as mine.

Posted 2021-08-16