Did UFO Cause SpaceX Rocket Explosion? Conspiracy Theories Point At Alien, Russian, Jewish, Competitor, Even Donald Trump Sabotage

A UFO was caught in the video feed from the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida Thursday as a SpaceX rocket readying for lift-off exploded, destroying the rocket and its multi-million-dollar payload. Within the next few hours, YouTube was inundated with videos showing the UFO moving quickly across the sky in the vicinity of the massive rocket. And with the UFO videos came conspiracy theories about what caused the SpaceX explosion, much of it suggesting sabotage of one type or another. But who would sabotage a rocket set to deploy a telecommunications satellite worth hundreds of millions of dollars? Speculation ran the imaginative gamut from competitors sabotaging billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket to Russians, Jews, and, of course, aliens.

The Los Angeles Times reported September 2 that an investigation into the SpaceX explosion was already underway. Not only would SpaceX be involved, but NASA and the U.S. Air Force had been invited to participate as well. The undertaking will be overseen by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Preliminary analysis suggests that since the explosion of the rocket occurred prior to launch, the possible causes could be narrowed down considerably. Still, there could be a number of potential possibilities. SpaceX reported that the “anomaly,” the unplanned conflagration and explosion, happened around the upper-stage oxygen tank during the unloading of propellant into the launch vehicle. Although the rocket and its payload were a complete loss, no one was injured at the site.

Update on this morning's anomaly pic.twitter.com/1ogCMPCY44

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 1, 2016

But the video feed from Cape Canaveral caught what some are labeling an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) soaring past the SpaceX rocket just as it explodes. Some conspiracy theorists, according to Express, have even pointed out that this was the “anomaly” of which SpaceX launch control spoke when referring to the incident. (However, conspiracy theories aside, it would seem that the “anomaly” was actually the fire and rocket explosion itself, as it was not a planned or controlled incident in line with the launch of the SpaceX rocket.)

Several videos have surfaced on YouTube showing the rocket explosion footage, analyzing and speculating as to the nature of the UFO. Those same videos have sparked debate as to who or what might be behind the UFOs presence and its possible involvement in the SpaceX rocket explosion. Many of the advanced conspiracy theories point to sabotage by a variety of different agents.

Like Russians or Ukrainians. In Storyful News’ video post “Incident At Kennedy Space Center SpaceX Test Site,” users apparently from both countries took turns blaming the other. Some, who claimed to be Russian, hurled insults at the U.S. and the the space program in general in the crossfire.

Paul W4 commented on Dr. Mike Johnson’s video entry, “SPACEX ROCKET EXPLOSION CAUSED BY UFO!!!”, “the ETs dont want us f***ing around in space. nasa are bunch of liers and this rocket probably had something on it that should not have and they did not want if up in space.”

User Dr. Mike Johnson did his best to defend the UFO theory, answering many of the questions presented. He also took on the detractors as well, especially those who speculated that the UFO was simply a bird captured in flight. Several times he asserted that the UFO in the video was “proof” of an alien-engineered craft. In one posting, he wrote that it was apparent that aliens were against Facebook (which, as Voice of America reported, owned the Israeli-manufactured telecommunications satellite the Space X rocket was lifting into orbit) placing a satellite above the Earth.

“PLEASE…..everyone share this with everyone you know and ask them to share it….,” Dr. Mike Johnson wrote (all caps original).

“THE PRESS IS ALREADY TRYING TO DEBUNK AND COVER THIS UP!!!! WE NOW HAVE ABSOLUTE PROOF OF ALIEN ENGINEERED CRAFT NOT ONLY VISITING BUT OBSERVING AND DESTROYING A SATELLITE LAUNCH……….THIS CHANGES THE ENITRE WORLD!!!!! Of course we don’t know exactly what these things are……but with high tech analysis of the footage and the explosion and any sensors that were there we can begin to understand how they function. I think these craft are spinning at MILLIONS OF RPM creating the visual distortions you see in the film. WE HAVE PROOF OF ALIEN CRAFT ON THIS PLANET…….PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH EVERYONE YOU KNOW……DON’T LET OUR GOVERNMENT SUPPRESS THIS!!!”

And although one viewer on the page thought the UFO was a bird, he thought the explosion was orchestrated by some Jewish conspiracy to get an insurance payoff for the rocket explosion. Dreadragon Flame wrote the following.

“This was intentional sabotage by the greedy Jews once again to collect insurance like Silverstein did with the WTC and to gain more martyrdom. Facebook was losing ‘face’ already. How convenient that WSJ ‘just happened’ to post an article about Elon Musk having financial problems with Solar City and Tesla motors THE SAME DAY. Jews HATE solar power and batteries, hate PayPal’s success, hate that Musk got all the NASA contracts… this was blatant sabotage, like via software hack to fire the payload boosters prematurely, nothing more.”

And though some might have agreed that someone or some entity was out to get the Mark Zuckerberg company, one user stated that perhaps it was God that struck down the rocket. Colonel T commented on the aforementioned Storyful News posting, “Even God has “had it” with stupid Fakebook. So, no satellite today Suckerberg!!! With all your ‘censoring’ of people’s freedom of speech, looks like God censored you today!”

Being that just about everything has been politicized this election year, there were a few that simply blamed the SpaceX rocket explosion on Donald Trump.

And yet, many posited that the image quite a few thought was a UFO was just a bug or a bird — but mostly a bird — flying through just as the rocket exploded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGz-OUzh8Ug

From the comment section of Alterinc’s post, “Did an UFO destroy the Falcon 9 Rocket?” user Nomadic4me wrote: “i dont want to put any wacky conspiracy theory out or nothing but… what if its…. a bird?”

His attempt at sarcasm was met with simplistic — and possibly facetious — logic from user thjeffro, “That’s crazy… why would birds want to blow up a rocket?” and true believer jeremiasz rebelka1, who posted, “I have no idea what it is – but I have never seen metallic oval shaped bird before. I’m sure the HD material exist it should be possible to investigate – we will se soon hopefully. For now it is a UFO – Unidentified Flying Object.”

Commenter pasGedden7 attempted, on Alterinc’s video post, to go the common sense route, although derisively, “LMAO so aliens that can fly in a round ball or saucer can also destroy a rocket to space without even SHOOTING anything at it, HAVE TO FLY SO CLOSE TO IT’S TARGET????? LMAO lol”.

So, was it a UFO, something powered by aliens, that image that quickly shoots across the video frame? Or could it have been a drone, as a couple commenters suggested? Or was it just a bug or bird? Regardless, could whatever it was have sabotaged the Space X rocket, leading to a sudden explosion?

Conspiracy theories and natural explanations for the UFO (and its possible manipulators) aside, Elon Musk now maintains that the fiery conflagration in Florida wasn’t an explosion at all. Technically, he posted to Twitter in answer to a question about the survivability of the Dragon space capsule in such an occurrence, it was a “fast fire.”

yes. This seems instant from a human perspective, but it really a fast fire, not an explosion. Dragon would have been fine.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 1, 2016

Of course, Musk’s post, which was shared at Gizmodo, has started up a debate all its own about whether the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded or succumbed to a fast fire. This line of commentary will undoubtedly feed more or existing conspiracy theories on a corporate and/or governmental cover-up. And adding credence to those conspiracy theories? NASA and the U.S. Air Force are involved, government agencies that are notorious among UFO enthusiasts and researchers for allegedly covering up, obfuscating, misdirecting, and creating falsehoods about the existence of UFOs and aliens.

[Photo by Roberto Gonzalez/Getty Images]