Caught on camera: Historic SpaceX launch spotted in Kill Devil Hills

SpaceX launched the Earth’s first all-civilian flight into orbit Wednesday night, and a couple old friends sitting on the porch of an Outer Banks beach house caught it on camera.

SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida after 8 p.m., sending four crew members on a three-day orbital excursion. It’s the first ever all-civilian mission to Earth’s orbit.

Barry Clark of Charlottesville and his old high school and college friend Daryl Law were having a beer on the south-facing porch of Clark’s vacation cottage in Kill Devil Hills when they saw what looked like an aircraft with a spotlight.

“Then we realized it was going up,” said Law, a local resident. Next, the rocket booster fell off in a fiery tail like a firework.

“It was a very unusual thing to see til we figured out what it was,” he said.