On the evening of 11 April, residents of Bali spotted a bright glowing object in the sky. The video quickly spread on social media and sparked all sorts of theories — from rockets and military tests to hypersonic weapons and, of course, UFOs. In reality, it turned out to be much more mundane.
The object was seen in several parts of the island at once — Denpasar, Gianyar and Badung. People filmed it from different locations, and every video shows the same thing: a bright trail slowly moving across the sky.
An explanation was provided by the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN). Astronomer Thomas Djamaluddin said it was the Chinese Smart Dragon-3 rocket, also known as Jielong-3. The launch took place on 11 April at 18:32 Western Indonesian Time.
The rocket was launched from a sea platform off the coast of Yangjiang in China’s Guangdong province. Its trajectory passes through the upper layers of the atmosphere and crosses part of the sky over Indonesia, which is why it was clearly visible from Bali.
Jielong-3 uses solid fuel and reaches an altitude of up to 500 kilometres. The glowing "tail" people saw was gas released during flight. At that altitude, it is lit by sunlight, creating the effect many mistake for something unusual.
Such launches are often used to put satellites into orbit, including internet satellites into a sun-synchronous orbit. This is an orbit in which a satellite passes over the same point on Earth at roughly the same time.
Interestingly, just a few days earlier, similar videos had already gone viral in Indonesia. At the time, residents of Lampung and Banten were not watching a launch, but pieces of a rocket re-entering the atmosphere, burning up and breaking apart.
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