Chinese rocket sparks Monday night fireball

The American Meteor Society this morning said that a fireball widely seen over the West on Monday was the remains of a Chinese rocket piece re-entering the atmosphere. Eyewitnesses reported a bright streaking object about 10 p.m. Pacific time from as far south as Arizona to as far north as Eastern Washington. In a post on its website, the meteor society said, “The description is typical for what a space junk re-entry would look like. As the satellite breaks apart in the atmosphere each nut, bolt or fragment of glass or metal will create a mini fireball.” Space junk also moves more slowly than fireballs generated by bits of naturally occurring space debris such as remains from comet trails, the meteor society said. Hundreds of eyewitness reports came in, and some sky watchers captured the fireball with videos and photos. The meteor society also said that NASA’s Orbital Debris Program Office identified the source of the fireball as a piece of a Chinese rocket. KSL-TV in Salt Lake City quoted the state’s NASA ambassador, Patrick Wiggins, as identifying the origins of the debris as a rocket body used in the launch of Yaogan Weixing-26, a Chinese satellite, in December 2014. NASA ambassadors are appointed by the space agency to work with local communities, but aren’t official spokespeople. Jon Fox, forecaster for the National Weather Service in Spokane, said his office received calls from people asking what the fireball was but the agency had not officially identified it. Fox said that in addition to the burning rocket, night gazers also got a glimpse of the Northern Lights on Monday night. “We got quite a few reports about that,” he said. The Northern Lights were so active that they could be seen from Seattle, he said.