Was a comet really seen over Florida skies tonight? Here’s the truth

One person wrote on X, “It’s probably just a comet but it didn’t act like it! I took this over Bayshore Blvd in Tampa about 7:35. About :20 seconds before this video it seemed to form over the water in an orange color than expand and have a tail…it didn’t fly into sight. Anyone else see this.”

Another added, “Just saw a comet/meteorite/whatever during a walk around the neighborhood.”

A third person wrote, “Anyone see this crossing the sky from west to east south of Ft Myers? It looked like an aircraft passing through a cloud layer with its landing light on when I first saw it.”

However, it wasn’t a comet.

The bright object was actually SpaceX’s Starship, which passed over Florida after launching from Starbase in Texas earlier in the day.

Spectrum News 13 reporter Greg Pallone confirmed the same, writing on X, “Captured SpaceX Starship Flight 11 as it soared suborbital between the Florida Keys and Cuba just 9 minutes after liftoff from Starbase, Texas. Looked like a comet streaking across the sky. Captured the video during our live launch coverage from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.”

About Starship Flight 11

SpaceX successfully launched its massive Starship rocket on a test flight Monday evening, marking the 11th full-scale flight of the next-generation vehicle. The rocket lifted off from Starbase, the company’s launch facility at the southern tip of Texas, thundering into the sky just after sunset.

As planned, the booster stage separated and made a controlled descent into the Gulf of Mexico, while the upper stage briefly reached the edge of space before beginning its descent toward the Indian Ocean. No part of the vehicle was recovered during this mission.

(With inputs from AP)