San Francisco, California, USA – Video filmed by X user Antonio Maffei captures the SpaceX Dragon Crew-11 capsule reentering Earth’s atmosphere over San Francisco on January 15, 2026.

The nighttime clip shows a bright streak of orange plasma cutting diagonally across a starry sky. The glowing trail brightens and elongates as the capsule descends, creating a fiery display before fading from view.

The capsule was returning to Earth for a splashdown off the coast of San Diego at approximately 12:41 a.m. PT. This early return ended the Crew-11 mission ahead of schedule due to a medical concern aboard the International Space Station.

Crew-11 includes NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Michael Fincke, JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, who spent 165 days in orbit before the expedited reentry. The event was visible across parts of California and Nevada.

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