New Delhi: On the evening of May 8, the skies over Odisha suddenly lit up with a bright, comet-like object. Visuals across social media also showed an orange-white tail across the horizon. Many took to social media to give their “expert opinion” on what the phenomenon could suggest.
“What looked like a mysterious glowing object in the #Odisha sky was actually a stunning “Twilight Phenomenon” created by a missile or rocket launch,” an user Soumyajit Pattnaik said.
Some of them even sought to offer a spiritual explanataion, saying, “It made structure like OMM In odisha sky Jai jagannath.”
The streak was also visible from as far as Cox Bazar in Bangladesh.
India conducted a successful Flight trial of an Advanced Agni missile with MIRV (Multiple Independently Targeted Re-Entry Vehicle) system from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island in Odisha on May 8 2026. The missile was flight tested with Multiple payloads, targeted to different targets spatially distributed over a large geographical area in the Indian Ocean Region.
Sharing an X post, DRDO wrote, “Advanced Agni missile with MIRV (Multiple Independently Targeted Re-Entry Vehicle) system was successfully tested from Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Island, Odisha on 08th May 2026. The missile was flight tested with Multiple payloads, targeted to different targets spatially distributed over a large geographical area in the Indian Ocean Region.”
The telemetry and tracking were carried out by multiple ground and ship-based stations. These systems tracked the entire missile trajectory from lift-off till the impact of all payloads. Flight data confirmed that all mission objectives were met during the trial.
With this successful trial, India demonstrated the capability to target multiple strategic targets using a single missile system. The missile was developed by DRDO laboratories with the support of Industries across the country. (With inputs from ANI)