Why Have Four Nations Launched Rockets Within Five Days?

Less than two weeks after the New York Times published an exposé on a covert, ‘black money’ Pentagon UFO study, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch led thousands to call in reports of a UFO sighting.

SpaceX founder and CEO, Elon Musk, took to Twitter to tease unwitting observers, posting a video of the launch with the caption, “nuclear alien UFO from North Korea.”

While news of the launch eventually spread, easing the fears and confusion of onlookers, over the next five days, three of the world’s biggest space programs would launch satellites of their own to observe something in Earth’s orbit.

Roughly one minute before the Falcon 9 launch, Japan launched its H-2A rocket from the Tanegashima Space Center, carrying two research satellites into low earth orbit to study weather patterns and test ion engine technology. This marked the shortest succession of successful rocket launches between two nations in history.

The Falcon 9 carried a payload of 10 miniature communications satellites as part of the Iridium Next Constellation, a series of eight launches that will release 75 satellites into orbit.

Almost a week later, China launched its own rocket to deploy remote sensing satellites as part of the Yaogan-30 project, ostensibly conducting electromagnetic experiments for environmental purposes.

But it doesn’t end there. On the same day as the Chinese launch, Russia launched two of its own rockets containing satellites, of which only one was successful. Rocosmos lost contact with its first rocket, due to an embarrassing programming error. It was carrying research satellites from a number of countries around the world.

Meanwhile, a second launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, intended to overcome missile defense systems, was successfully launched from the Kapustin Yar test site in the Astrakhan region of southern Russia.

This series of launches among four of the world’s major space programs has raised some eyebrows, especially in the wake of the disclosure of the Pentagon’s UFO program. These five launches occurred within five days of each other, four of which contained satellites.

All of the satellites deployed from these rockets were ostensibly launched to study weather or expand communications systems. But is this all just a coincidence or is there something that has led some of the most powerful countries in the world to take seemingly prompt action in these consecutive launches?