On September 10, 2024, a bright orb of light was spotted over New York City, which immediately sparked rumors of UFO intervention. Reportedly, the city's residents were left bewildered and somewhat anxious after observing a mysterious orb of light with a long, glowing tail streaking across the sky, sparking theories about whether it was a sign of an impending alien arrival at a passing UFO.
Comments from spectators allegedly ranged from excitement about the sighting to playful remarks about extraterrestrials in New York City. However, the object was soon identified as a spaceship, not a UFO. The spacecraft’s horizontal trajectory towards the stars was visible along the East Coast, causing some onlookers to mistake it for an alien event.
The supposed UFO is Jared Isaacman’s "brainchild"
According to a Times Now report from September 11, 2024, the spacecraft was identified as the Polaris Dawn spaceship. Launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:23 AM local time, this mission includes the first spacewalk by non-astronauts.
The crew, comprising NASA scientists and millionaire Jared Isaacman (founder of Shift4 Payments), will spend five days in space, including ten hours at 870 miles altitude, where they will face high levels of radiation and space debris. Isaacman is also a second-time space-goer involved in the September 2021 Inspiration4 mission.
The space mission, mistakenly perceived as a UFO appearance, is Isaacman’s brainchild. After reaching 870 miles, the Polaris Dawn crew will remain in space for the next five days. This mission is supposed to break the previous Earth-orbit distance record, with only the Apollo astronauts traveling to the Moon having flown farther.
Unlike a UFO, the space mission completed the first commercial spacewalk
The spacecraft would lower its orbit to about 435 miles. A vital part of the mission is the spacewalk scheduled for September 12, 2024, which involves depressurizing the Dragon capsule. As per the latest update, the crew completed the first commercial spacewalk. During the two-hour spacewalk, the crew was supposed to wear SpaceX's latest suits to protect them from the vacuum of space.
Other crew members include former US Air Force pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis. In an interview with Today on May 6, 2024, Isaacman said:
“So, Polaris Dawn is the first mission of the Polaris programme. These are all test and developmental missions. They kind of take us closer to fulfilling SpaceX’s dream of making life multi-planetary."
He continued:
"Polaris Dawn is also, like you mentioned, we are going farther into space since the last time humans walked on the moon on Apollo 17, testing out a new space suit which hopefully someday, some version of, could be used for humans walking on the moon or Mars someday.”
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He also mentioned that they were testing out a new Starlink communication system. Starlink had previously sparked UFO rumors due to its appearance in the night sky.
Since the establishment of the International Space Station (ISS) in 2000, there have been approximately 270 spacewalks, 16 of which were conducted by Chinese astronauts on Beijing's Tiangong space station. However, this will be the first instance of a private company facilitating spacewalks.
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