Does this look like the Tower of the Americas? Credit: Shutterstock / ktsdesign

Skywatchers from all corners of Texas lit up social media this weekend with posts about possible UFO sightings.

Some speculated that aliens were hovering over the Lone Star State — possibly to pick up some good barbecue in between a busy night of cattle mutilations and anal probing. However, the cause for the strange anomalies was more likely the result of a satellite launch by billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX venture.

One San Antonio observer tweeted out speculating that a UFO had just zoomed over the city.

“UFO in South Texas? Not sure what I witnessed here,” @5JSMITH3 wrote. “The light of the craft was hazy like there was fog around it but absolute clear skies? Maybe Elon?”

That observer wasn’t alone.

X user Candice Burke also reported seeing bright, swirling lights in the Texas sky.

As did X user @mysimplerundown.

To be sure, all three clips showed memorizing lights that could be mistaken for alien craft. But the explanation, as we mentioned earlier, is little more down to earth.

Around the same time as the Saturday night sightings, SpaceX reported that it had launched 21 Starlink satellites from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

It wouldn’t be the first time terrestrial observers confused a SpaceX launch with an alien visitation. Last March, after some San Antonio residents reported UFO sightings in the night sky, the Express-News chalked up the unusual sight to Musk’s commercial space business. Even so, some Alamo City residents refused to accept that explanation.

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This article appears in Apr 2-15, 2025.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...