A streak of burning Falcon 9 debris lit up the horizon as it re-entered the atmosphere over California.

Drone footage shows the fiery re-entry and controlled descent of a SpaceX Falcon 9 second stage on November 23.

The clip ends with a wide shot as the rocket's fading glow dissolves into a sky dotted with early stars.

SpaceX said on its website: 'On Sunday, November 23, at 12:48 am PT, Falcon 9 launched 28 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

'This was the first flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission. Following stage separation, the first stage landed on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship, which was stationed in the Pacific Ocean.

'There was a possibility that residents of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura counties may have heard one or more sonic booms during the launch, but what residents experienced depended on weather and other conditions.'

Elon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002. It is a private aerospace manufacturer and space transportation company with several ambitious projects aimed at revolutionising space travel and making humanity a multiplanetary species.

SpaceX has achieved numerous milestones, including launching the first privately funded spacecraft to reach orbit, the first to dock with the ISS, and the first to send astronauts to space from American soil since the Space Shuttle programme.