'UFOs Over Southern California'? Two TikToks Went Up Within Hours of a Falcon 9 Night Launch From Vandenberg

LONG BEACH, Calif. (Oct. 10, 2026): A little before 1 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026, someone in the Long Beach area pointed a phone at the night sky and posted what they saw to TikTok. “I don’t know what’s going on,” the caption began, “it’s been random stuff sky.”

Where it started

The original social media posts

1. @lets_fawkshitup on TikTok

   Oct 10, 2026

   I don't know what's going on it's been random stuff sky as a 12 48 p.m. on October 10th 2026 in the Long Beach area #sky #flying #losangeles #fy #fyp

   The earliest of the two clips, posted 14 minutes after the Falcon 9 liftoff. The caption says “p.m.”, but the post went up at 12:53 a.m.

   View original on TikTok (opens in new tab) Load the post here

2. @roaring.kitty0 on TikTok

   Oct 10, 2026

   Unidentified flying objects observed over Southern California. 10/10/2026 #alien #viral #nasa #trending #fyp

   Posted about an hour after the launch. The caption doesn't say when the clip was filmed. TikTok comments sit behind a login, so none are quoted.

   View original on TikTok (opens in new tab) Load the post here

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About an hour later, a second account posted a clip with a blunter label: “Unidentified flying objects observed over Southern California. 10/10/2026.”

Fourteen minutes before the first post, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket had lifted off from the California coast with 21 satellites for the U.S. military.

✓ What we know

On the record: documents, statements, dates and places. Sources below.

• The launch. SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 12:39 a.m. local time on Oct. 10, carrying 21 “data transport” satellites for the Space Development Agency’s network, Space.com reported. The first stage came back to land at Vandenberg “a little over seven minutes after liftoff.”
• A second try. The launch came five days late. SpaceX had tried on Monday, Oct. 5, but the countdown was halted in its final minute, for reasons the company hasn’t disclosed, according to Space.com.
• The first clip. TikTok user @lets_fawkshitup posted a video at 12:53 a.m. PDT, according to the time encoded in the video’s ID. The caption places it “in the Long Beach area” and gives the time as “12 48 p.m. on October 10th 2026.” Since the post went up at 12:53 a.m., the “p.m.” looks like a slip for a.m. If so, the clip was made nine minutes after liftoff.
• The second clip. TikTok user @roaring.kitty0 posted “Unidentified flying objects observed over Southern California. 10/10/2026” at 1:41 a.m. The caption doesn’t name a town or say when it was filmed.
• The distance. Vandenberg sits on the coast of Santa Barbara County, roughly 150 miles northwest of Long Beach as the crow flies. Night launches from the base are regularly reported by viewers across Southern California.

? What’s claimed

Accounts, testimony and theories, as told by the people who tell them.

• “Random stuff” in the sky. The first poster didn’t say what they thought the lights were, only that something unusual was going on overhead. The preview frame TikTok shows for the clip is a bright, ragged orange-white glow with a small red point of light off to one side, against a black sky.
• “Unidentified flying objects.” The second poster called the lights UFOs outright. The clip’s preview frame shows a small bright point with a short tail, above a ridgeline and a palm tree, low in a sky that’s still faintly lit near the horizon.
• No other claims. Neither poster described a shape, a sound or a direction of travel in their caption, and we found no news report of the clips.

Why the launch matters here

A rocket climbing through the upper atmosphere at night can look nothing like a rocket. Exhaust from the engines spreads out in the thin air and catches sunlight that hasn’t reached the ground yet, which is why night launches are often described as glowing jellyfish, comets or spinning clouds. The booster’s own burns as it turns around and comes back to land can add separate bright points that seem to move independently.

That’s why the timing is the first thing to check. The Long Beach clip was posted 14 minutes after liftoff and, by its caption, filmed nine minutes after. That’s within the window when a Falcon 9’s second stage and its plume could still be visible from the Los Angeles area. The booster had landed about two minutes earlier.

What the timing can’t do is settle what each video shows. The preview frame of the Long Beach clip, a flickering orange glow with a red dot beside it, isn’t the classic fan-shaped plume, and other things light up a Southern California night: aircraft, drones, flares. The second clip doesn’t say when or where it was filmed, so it could have been shot during the launch or at some other time that night. Both clips are embedded above, and readers can compare them with launch footage from that night.

What’s next

No agency or SpaceX statement mentions sightings from the ground, and as of Oct. 10 we found none in local news. The launch itself is on the record down to the minute: 12:39 a.m. from Vandenberg, with the booster back on the ground about seven minutes later.

On a night when a rocket was climbing out of Vandenberg, two people in Southern California looked up, saw lights they couldn’t explain and posted them within the hour. The overlap is close. Whether it’s a match is up to what’s in the frames.