NASA Rocket Spotted From Jersey Shore Beach Tuesday: See Photos

ORTLEY BEACH, NJ — If you saw a bright streak of light soaring through the skies of New Jersey on Tuesday, you were not alone — that was a rocket headed to the International Space Station, and one of our Patch readers sent in a picture of it it flying over the water in Ocean County.

With clear skies Tuesday night, residents in the Toms River area had a good view of the Antares rocket, which lifted off shortly after 8:30 p.m. from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.

The 139-foot Antares rocket was carrying research and supplies to the International Space Station via the Cygnus spacecraft, according to NASA.

Patch reader Paul Jeffrey sent us photos of the smoke trail soaring behind the rocket, which he and his family witnessed from Ortley Beach on Tuesday night.

Collin Gross, a Rutgers University meteorology student and weather spotter, also got photos of the Antares rocket farther north, in Sewaren.

After Antares passed Ocean County and the skies got darker, Jeffrey also snapped a picture of the first of two August "supermoons" rising over the water.

Four full moons in 2023 qualify as supermoons, or as astronomers call them, perigean full moons, including the Aug. 1 full sturgeon moon and the Aug. 30 blue moon.