A pale blue streak visible during SpaceX’s Starship Flight 14 livestream sparked UFO speculation online, with engineer Kyle Holl joking that an engine shutdown was followed by an ‘alien battle cruiser’ uncloaking.

The comment came as viewers scrutinised footage from Starship’s first orbital mission, launched from Starbase, Texas, on Monday.

The vehicle reached orbit and deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites. Controllers then shortened the planned mission and brought Starship back to Earth after about three hours.

UFO Theories Emerge as Starship Reaches Orbit
Flight 14 was Starship’s 14th integrated test flight and its first orbital attempt, following 13 earlier suborbital flights. Reaching orbit was a significant test milestone for SpaceX as it develops Starship for NASA’s Artemis programme.

The feature appeared in multiple frames of the livestream as a narrow, slightly curved streak of pale blue light with a brighter white tip against the dark background of space. Some viewers also pointed to an earlier, faint blue-white feature visible at about six minutes and 35 seconds into the broadcast.

The footage prompted a range of reactions on social media. One X user wrote, ‘I think we all just saw a UFO live-streamed.’ Another asked Elon Musk, ‘Hey Elon, is this Mothership?’

Some viewers speculated that the feature could have been the International Space Station or another object. However, the livestream footage alone does not establish the feature’s distance, size or identity, so claims that it was city-sized cannot be verified from the images.

Engineer Kyle Holl’s Alien Battle Cruiser Remark
Holl’s quip was among the reactions shared online, ‘Hmm, an engine out and then an alien battle cruiser uncloaks. Interesting.’ It jokingly linked the sighting to an engine anomaly during the flight.

One of Starship’s six Raptor engines, a vacuum-optimised Raptor, shut down during ascent. The engine shutdown prompted an assessment of the vehicle. Controllers then shortened the planned mission and brought Starship down in the Pacific Ocean after about three hours.

Read More: Engineer Kyle Holl quips ‘An engine out and then an alien battle cruiser uncloaks’ during flight