Fireball over Western U.S: Chinese Rocket Debris
Authorities in the Western United States received dozens of calls Wednesday night and Social Media was a buzz after a long-lasting fireball streaked through the night skies from California to Utah.
Data from the Joint Space Operations Center confirmed the event was caused by the fiery re-entry of a Chinese rocket stage that had spent one month in orbit.
California residents reported seeing the bright object in the skies at 9:36 p.m. local time on Wednesday, 4:36 UTC Thursday and described the event as a slow-moving fireball breaking up in the sky. Videos of the event show the typical characteristics of the re-entry of a man-made object – moving much slower than any natural meteor and breaking up into individual fragments.
Reports came from across California, dozens of videos were posted from Las Vegas and sightings were reported as far east as Utah. The fireball was visible for over 30 seconds from most locations.
The object responsible for Wednesday’s light show in the sky was a spent rocket stage from the maiden launch of China’s Long March 7 rocket.
The 53-meter tall rocket
lifted off from China’s new Wenchang Satellite Launch Center, Hainan Island on June 25, carrying into orbit a prototype of the country’s Next Generation Crew Vehicle, a group of small satellites and a ballast mass that remained attached to the Yuanzheng-1A Upper Stage that completed a two-day free-flight for experiments ahead of a targeted re-entry.
The second stage of the rocket reached an orbit of 201 by 379 Kilometers at an inclination of 40.8 degrees – beginning a slow descent toward Earth caused by drag due to collisions with atoms and molecules present in the very upper reaches of Earth’s atmosphere.
By Wednesday 12 UTC, the rocket stage had reached an orbit of 131 by 144 Kilometers.
The second stage of Long March 7 is about 11.5 meters in length, 3.35 meters in diameter and weighs around six metric tons without fuel – making is a sizeable re-entry object. On its business end, the stage hosts a pack of four YF-115 engines that burned over 65 metric tons of Kerosene and Oxygen during the rocket’s climb into Low Earth Orbit.
Rocket stages are relatively light and have a large surface area – comprised of large tank sections and the heavy engine compartment in the aft, causing a more rapid orbital decay compared to satellites that are more compact, offering less surface area for drag to act on.