Anchorage-based photographer saw something wild — a sudden, bright light on the northern horizon that quickly started to take on a spiral shape as it drew nearer. The spiral “appears to be rocket engine exhaust from a SpaceX Transporter-7 mission that launched on the Falcon 9 about three hours earlier in California.”

ABL Space Systems is still investigating the crash, but says the rocket rose more than 700 feet before its engines shut down 11 seconds after launch.