Social media broke out as 4 astronauts returned from space, with reports of a meteor hitting Earth. Early on the morning of 15 January 2026, people across California were jolted awake by an unbelievable sight in the night sky. A blazing trail of light, glowing brighter than most shooting stars, went across the heavens above San Francisco, Los Angeles and other coastal cities.
No, it was not a meteor shower or a trick of the atmosphere, but the successful return of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere and went towards a planned splashdown off the Pacific coast. For a brief moment, millions of people paused to watch and record this insane aerospace event, which NASA and SpaceX livestreamed and immediately went viral on social media.
