The Mystery of Flying Fireballs in America, Turns Out to be Space Junk

JAKARTA – Residents of California, United States, were shocked by the sight of flying fireballs. However, who would have thought that it was Chinese space debris that fell to Earth.

Fiery space debris streaks across the sky, turning night into day from Sacramento to San Diego. Social media was immediately in an uproar because rumors emerged of the meteor sighting.

Interesting Engineering reported, Thursday (18/4/24) that the Aerospace Corporation and the American Meteor Society, aka space experts, are tracking these space objects. They confirmed that the flaming object was the orbital module of China’s Shenzhou-15 mission in November 2022 which sent three astronauts to the space station.

It turns out that the orbital module was not designed with a good feedback system. So, when the mission is complete, this discarded object is like being in outer space until gravity brings it back down.

To put it simply, the Shenzhou spaceship is like a space apartment. The orbital module provides extra space for work and play, but it’s not designed to make a proper return trip. This is where the reentry module comes in, built as tough as a cosmic crash helmet to bring astronauts back safely.

Space junk China apparently has a history of being dramatic and uncontrolled. The enormous core stage of the Long March 5B rocket once shocked the internet and shocked space experts. So if you ever see mysterious lights in the sky, don’t think that it’s an alien or meteor appearance, it could just be space debris returning to Earth.

MG/Maulana Kusumadewa Iskandar

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