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UFOs & UAP

A 'Mothership' Behind Starship? A Pale Streak on SpaceX's Flight 14 Livestream Sets Off UFO Claims

During SpaceX's Starship Flight 14 broadcast on Sept. 28, 2026, the first Starship flight to reach orbit, viewers spotted a curved blue-white streak trailing the ship. Some called it a mothership. Others said it was gas from the Super Heavy booster. SpaceX and NASA hadn't commented as of Sept. 30.

STARBASE, Texas By Dead of Night Dispatch

Location Starship Flight 14 livestream; launched from Starbase, near Brownsville, Texas

Illustration: a rocket climbing above the Earth trailing a curved blue-white streak

STARBASE, Texas (Sept. 28, 2026) — On Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, SpaceX’s Starship reached orbit for the first time. Some of the people watching the company’s livestream, though, were looking at something else in the frame.

Where it started

The original social media post

  1. @petrovicsrb

    Hey Elon is this Mothership #uap #ufo We have Moon but what is this big one? Space X STARSHIP FLIGHT 14 !!!!

    34.2K views · 27 replies · 307 likes as of Oct 3, 2026

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About eight minutes into the broadcast, a narrow, slightly curved line of pale blue light with a brighter white tip appeared in the darkness behind the ship. Within minutes, screenshots were circulating online, along with a word that has followed rocket launches before: mothership.

What we know

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

  • The flight. Starship lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Sept. 28 at 7:48 a.m. Central time (5:48 a.m. MST), according to SpaceX’s figures as reported by Mashable India. Geo News reported that it was the 14th test flight, the first to reach orbit, and that the ship deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites.
  • Orbital, not suborbital. Both words turned up in coverage of the flight, and SpaceX’s own in-flight updates show why. After its ascent burn, SpaceX posted that Starship was “now on a passively safe suborbital trajectory as teams check systems to confirm we are good to proceed to orbit today.” Its next update read: “Go for orbit! Starship will soon perform a burn with a single Raptor engine to enter an ~275 km orbit of Earth.” Mashable India reported that the ship completed that orbit-insertion burn at about 275 kilometers.
  • A shortened mission. One of the ship’s engines shut down early during the climb, IBTimes UK and Mashable reported. SpaceX cut short what had been planned as a roughly 10-hour flight, and Geo News reported that it lasted about three hours. The ship splashed down in the Pacific, and a fireball erupted seconds after it hit the water, according to IBTimes UK and Mashable.
  • The streak. IBTimes UK reported that the feature appeared about seven minutes into the ascent. Mashable put it at 7 minutes 55 seconds into the broadcast, and Coast to Coast AM at around eight minutes.
  • No official word. As of Sept. 29–30, 2026, neither SpaceX nor NASA had commented on the streak, according to Coast to Coast AM, Geo News and The News International. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman congratulated SpaceX on the launch but said nothing about the object, Mashable reported.
  • No scale. IBTimes UK and Geo News both noted that the footage offers no way to establish the object’s size or distance.

What’s claimed

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

“A UFO live-streamed.” “I think we all just saw a UFO live-streamed,” one viewer wrote on X, according to IBTimes UK. Another said it “looks like a mothership,” and one claimed it was “bigger than a city,” a claim IBTimes UK said the images could not substantiate. Others wondered if they were seeing the International Space Station.

A welcoming party. Michael Salla, author of the Secret Space Programs book series, wrote that the first Starship sent into Earth orbit “was trailed by a large UFO that some claim is a mothership,” The News International reported. He suggested the object might be “welcoming its little brother to cislunar space.”

Too fast for debris? One viewer quoted by The News International and Mashable wasn’t convinced by the debris idea: “That object is moving real fast relative to Starship. Doesn’t seem like debris from the vehicle like the ice particles, what could this possibly be I wonder.”

An engine and a battle cruiser. Engineer Kyle Holl joked about the timing: “Hmm, an engine out and then an alien battle cruiser uncloaks. Interesting,” according to Mashable. IBTimes UK noted that his post offered no evidence of any connection between the engine problem and the streak.

The booster explanation

The most widely cited explanation came from a viewer, Dean Scott. According to IBTimes UK, he suggested the streak was gas left behind by the Super Heavy booster as its engines shut down after separation and fired again for the return burn. In his view, Earth’s bright horizon had hidden the gas at first, which made it seem to rise once it came into view. He pointed to an earlier frame, 6 minutes 35 seconds after launch, that showed a small, fuzzy blue-white patch near Earth’s edge.

At least one viewer who checked the footage was persuaded. “I went back and saw the cloud before it ‘flattened,’” the viewer replied, as quoted by Mashable.

Other explanations have been raised as well. Geo News listed exhaust or gas from Starship or its booster, ice and debris, and reported that “there is no evidence that it was anything extraterrestrial.” One commenter quoted by The News International suggested “a hunk of ice that broke off the side of the ship or some propellant that leaked out the engines during the cutoff that froze in space.”

SpaceX hasn’t confirmed any of these explanations. As of the last reports reviewed here, from Sept. 30, 2026, the company had not said what was in the frame.

Sources

  1. Mysterious Object Allegedly Seen on SpaceX Livestream as Users State It 'Looks Like a Mothership' — IBTimes UK Sept. 29, 2026.
  2. SpaceX livestream captures mysterious object as Starship reaches orbit: Alien mothership? — Geo News Sept. 29, 2026.
  3. 'UFO or alien mothership?' Mysterious streak in Starship Flight 14 livestream sparks wild theories — The News International Sept. 29, 2026.
  4. SpaceX livestream alleged 'UFO' sighting sends internet into meltdown — Mashable Middle East Sept. 29, 2026.
  5. Starship Flight 14 Is Orbital; SpaceX Team Cheers As Spaceship Deploys Starlink Satellites — Mashable India Sept. 28, 2026. Quotes SpaceX's in-flight updates.
  6. Watch: Odd UFO Spotted During SpaceX Live Feed — Coast to Coast AM Sept. 29, 2026.