Mysterious object with a tadpole-shaped smoke trail identified as a rocket

June 24 (UPI) — A mysterious object that streaked across the Las Vegas-area sky, leaving a tadpole-shaped trail of smoke in its wake, has been identified as a SpaceX rocket.

Many residents of Southern Nevada reported seeing the object streak across the sky Sunday evening and wondered what it could be.

“I took a video this evening of an unknown object flying in the sky with what appears to be some sort of smoke trailing behind it,” one resident said in an email to KLAS-TV.

The National Weather Service office in Las Vegas said on social media that the object was a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Starlink satellites into orbit.

The rocket was launched from Vandenberg Space Station in California.

Some viewers said a second object seen in a video shared by NWS appeared to interact with the rocket, but the NWS said in a follow-up tweet that the second light was a plane that took off from the airport's Runway 26 international Harry Reid and facing north.

The rocket launched 20 Starlink satellites into orbit, sparking more reports of UFOs in Malta, where residents could see lights in the sky coming from the satellites heading into orbit.