An experimental spacecraft lifts off from the launch pad at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province. (Photo : Reuters)
The glowing body of a rocket used by China in launching a satellite last December that re-entered air space recently has created a stir among residents in the U.S., particularly in the Rocky Mountain states of Idaho, Montana and Utah, as they saw a streaking fireball in the night sky on Monday, Feb. 23.
Chris Anderson, manager of the Centennial Observatory at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls, witnessed the spectacle and said that the rocket disintegrated as it entered the atmosphere about 113 kilometers above Earth.
Neil Zeller, a Canadian photographer, also reportedly saw fireballs in cluster while he was on his way home outside Calgary, before midnight.
The American Meteor Society said that more than 150 people from various locations have reported seeing the dozen of fireballs, which lingered for a few seconds, moving slowly as they descended and disappeared from view.
Anderson said that an organization that studies space junk and debris from orbiting space craft had earlier predicted that a rocket would also be seen at around 2 a.m., U.S. time or early Tuesday on Feb. 24 in northern Russia.
The rocket was used by China to launch its satellite into orbit in Dec. 2014 and began its descent. The rocket has been orbiting the Earth about every 87 seconds but changed direction as it tumbled, Anderson added.
He said that it is difficult to predict where the debris will fall as the atmospheric drag and the shape of the object can affect the rate of speed of its descent.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Patrick Wiggins of the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory said that the sighting was caused by the re-entry of the rocket used by China to launch the satellite Yaogan Weixing-26 in December last year.
