By Owen Jacques

ABC Sunshine Coast

Topic: Space

Wednesday, June 10, 2026, at 7:10 am

In short:

A rocket from China made a big show in the sky for people in northeastern Australia.

The rocket was carrying something that weighed 6 tonnes.

What's next?

A space expert, Jonti Horner, says we will see more things like this.

A Chinese rocket lit up the sky over Queensland and northern New South Wales.

A professor said the rocket was launched from China at 6:20 pm and was seen in Queensland 20 minutes later.

The professor said, 'We got a great light show.'

Many people in Caloundra saw the rocket in the sky on Tuesday night.

The rocket was high up, so the sun was still shining on it, even though it was dark on the ground.

The professor said the rocket was doing something that made it look very cool.

The rocket was seen over a town called Surat as it went into space.

The professor said the rocket was getting rid of extra gas before it put out some satellites.

If the rocket was in the Earth's shadow, we wouldn't have seen it.

But the rocket was high enough to still see the sun, so we saw a bright cloud of gas.

The rocket was launched by a company called LandSpace from a place in China.

Some people saw a big ball of gas that changed color and then disappeared.

The professor said that looked a bit scary, but it was just the gas and rocket moving into the Earth's shadow.

The professor said that when things move into the Earth's shadow, they can look red, like during sunset.

The same thing happened with the rocket.

The rocket was carrying satellites that can talk directly to phones.

A Chinese company launched the rocket, which had two satellites on it.

The company said the launch was a success.

The professor was happy to see people excited about the rocket and its trail.

He said we will see more things like this in the future.

The professor said that because more people are using space, we will see more rockets and cool things in the sky.

This will happen more often, not less often.

The rocket was very visible in the sky after sunset, which made people wonder and ask questions.

ABC Sunshine has local news.

Wednesday, June 10, 2026, at 7:10 am

Wednesday, June 10, 2026, at 10:32 am

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