JAKARTA - The fireball suddenly slid into the morning sky of Southwest Florida, Thursday, March 23. Many say this phenomenon is an asteroid, but according to astronomers, it comes from remnants of a Chinese rocket that caught fire when it re-entered Earth's atmosphere.
Through his Twitter, astronomer Jonathan McDowell said the fireball with great light was the fourth-stage rocket from the Kuaizhou-1A (KZ-1A) launch which was carried out on March 22, on fire when it re-entered Earth's uncontrolled atmosphere.
"The fourth-stage rocket from the March 22 KZ-1A launch carried out post-placement burn to lower perigees of only 114 km, leading to an (uncontrolled) re-entry into Florida just a day later at 0837 UTC," tweeted @planet4589.
The fourth stage rocket from the Mar 22 KZ-1A launch made a post-deployment burn to lower perigee to only 114 km, leading to an (uncontrolled) reentry over Florida only a day later at 0837 UTC. https://t.co/A4w2zOH840
— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) March 23, 2023
It is believed the rocket has brought the Chinese satellite into orbit. Launching BGR, Monday, March 27, this is just the latest incident where a stage from a Chinese rocket has re-entered the atmosphere uncontrollably, posing a significant risk for residents living in the area where the incident occurred.
Back in 2020, the remnants of a Chinese rocket nearly hit the school as it fell back to Earth. Hopefully with this incident, as another reminder of the importance of providing a safe way for rocket hardware to return to Earth, and hopefully the remnants of China's rockets in the future will have better control.
The Bamboo Curtain country has so far made several major steps in space exploration and even plans to investigate Uranus in future missions.
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