![]() ![]() Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics astronomer Jonathan McDowell shared his observations about the lights over the Pacific Northwest as the event unfolded. The second stage is not reused, but instead is usually left in orbit as space junk, or its single engine will re-light and guide it to a reentry over the Pacific Ocean. The lower part of the rocket, called the first stage, is the piece that SpaceX brings back to Earth to reuse. The second stage is the upper part of the rocket that delivers its payload-in this case, 60 Starlink satellites-into orbit around Earth. SpaceX has retrieved the object that fell on the Washington farm.Īs Eric Berger reports for Ars Technica, the ordeal began when the second stage of a Falcon 9 rocket failed to properly de-orbit. “Of course we didn’t have a protocol for this, so we just erred on the side of returning someone’s property to them,” says Kyle Foreman, a spokesperson for the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, to the Verge. The people who found each object called the authorities, who then contacted SpaceX. Then, on April 10, another object resembling rocket debris washed up ashore in Oregon's Lincoln County, Jayati Ramakrishnan reports for the Oregonian.īoth objects resemble Composite-Overwrapped Pressure Vessels, which are tanks that hold hydrogen at about 6,000 pounds per square inch to pressurize the propellant used in the rocket. Most expected the debris from the rocket would disintegrate during re-entry, as the friction from falling through the atmosphere at high speeds tends to burn man-made objects to ash unless they’re specifically designed for the task.īut a few days after the debris lit up the sky, officials identified a large piece of rocket debris on a farm in Washington state, Joey Roulette reports for the Verge. ![]() It appeared that the unscheduled light show came from the debris of a SpaceX rocket that was launched at the beginning of the month, Mike Ives reports for the New York Times. The same video was also shared in reports about the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket here by Belgium-based newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, and here by Argentine-based newspaper Los Andes.One night in late March, residents of the Pacific Northwest saw mysterious streaks light overhead. Its reentry was observed from the Seattle area at about 0400 UTC Mar 26. The Falcon 9 second stage from the Mar 4 Starlink launch failed to make a deorbit burn and is now reentering after 22 days in orbit. Its reentry was observed from the Seattle area at about 0400 UTC Mar 26.” “The Falcon 9 second stage from the Mar 4 Starlink launch failed to make a deorbit burn and is now reentering after 22 days in orbit. McDowell also tweeted in the evening of March 25 about SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket re-entering back to the earth. “The breakup of a discarded rocket stage that had been in space about three weeks, and was re-entering the atmosphere,” said McDowell in the news video. Jonathan McDowell, astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told CityNews the streaks of light in the video are rocket debris. ![]() It corresponds with Google Street View imagery seen here.Īllen spoke to Canadian TV broadcaster CityNews on Maabout the video. The video was filmed in Newberg city in US state Oregon. In a follow-up tweet, he wrote: “Apparently it was SpaceX”. YO OREGON WHAT DID I JUST SEE /fgplrWtghaĪllen’s caption reads: “YO OREGON WHAT DID I JUST SEE". ![]() The video shows a SpaceX rocket that disintegrated shortly after it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere in March 2021.Ī longer version of the video was published by Twitter user Ches Allen here on March 25, 2021. The video was also published along with similar claims such as here, here and here on Twitter. The uncontrolled re-entry of the 18-tonne object had sparked concerns about possible damage days earlier. The video circulated online on the same day a large segment of a Chinese rocket re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated over the Indian Ocean, AFP reported. Screenshot taken on May 14, 2021, of the misleading Twitter post ![]()
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