TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — What a Taiwanese netizen on Thursday night (Dec. 23) described as a "UFO" flying off the southern coast of Taiwan appears to have been a Chinese rocket, according to military experts.
On Thursday evening, a member of a Taiwanese Facebook group (爆料公社) based in Houying in Tainan City's Xigang District posted a photo of an object with a long contrail like a comet or rocket and described it as a "UFO" flying in the sky. The video led some Taiwanese netizens to speculate that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) was testing a military rocket.
Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) denied that it had fired any rockets or missiles that evening. The MND stressed that it had closely monitored the situation over Taiwan's territorial waters and airspace and that "the current situation is normal."
At 8 p.m. on Thursday evening, military analyst Henri Kenhmann reported on his Twitter account East Pendulum that a Long March 7A (CZ-7A Y3) had blasted off from Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan, China. Kenhmann stated that the rocket was carrying two SY-12 satellites designed by the China Academy of Space Technology and will be "officially used" for the analysis of the space environment in geosynchronous equatorial orbit.
Kenhmann posted a Google Earth map that showed the trajectory of rocket starting from Hainan and flying south of Taiwan and just north of the Philippine island of Luzon. He then posted a video of the rocket posted on Weibo reportedly taken from a passenger plane at an altitude of 10,000 meters near the city of Guangzhou.
Rocket on launch pad. (Weibo image)
Closeup view of CZ-7A rocket. (Twitter, East pendulum image)
Rocket blasting off. (Weibo image)
(Facebook, Breaking News Commune image)
(Facebook, Breaking News Commune image)
Map of rocket's trajectory. (Twitter, East pendulum image)
Succès du 52e lancement orbital chinois de l'année : le décollage de la fusée CZ-7A Y3 a eu lieu au centre spatial de Wenchang à 18h12 UTC+8. Les 2 satellites SY-12 sont conçus par CAST et serviront officiellement de l'analyse de l'environnement spatial en GEO. pic.twitter.com/bqF77NH4Ku
— East Pendulum (@HenriKenhmann) December 23, 2021
Le lancement du CZ-7A Y3 ce soir, vu à 10000m d'altitude par un passager de vol commercial près de la ville de Guangzhou. pic.twitter.com/WMZG8G1mal
— East Pendulum (@HenriKenhmann) December 23, 2021
Le 52e vol orbital chinois en 2021 est prévu le 23 Décembre au centre spatial de Wenchang, entre 10h02 et 13h14 UTC. Il sera assuré par une fusée CZ-7A. La charge utile n'est pas officiellement communiquée. pic.twitter.com/xovqCbmDw8
— East Pendulum (@HenriKenhmann) December 22, 2021