Fireball in the sky: a Chinese satellite and a space rocket burned up over America (video).

A bright fireball illuminated the night sky over several southern states in the USA, but it was not a meteor, as some observers believed. It was Chinese space debris, specifically a defunct satellite. A similar phenomenon was witnessed by residents of Puerto Rico, but in that case, it was a non-operational Chinese rocket, reports Space.

The Chinese satellite Superview 1-02 burned up in the atmosphere over the USA late on December 21, and the fireball created during its atmospheric entry was visible to residents in 12 states. The Superview 1-02 satellite, which was engaged in Earth imaging, was traveling at a speed of 27,400 km/h when it entered our planet's atmosphere.

Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who tracks satellite launches and descents, stated that this satellite was operated by SpaceView of Beijing. According to McDowell, since January 2023, this satellite had been classified as space debris, as it was inoperative and on orbit, making its eventual fall to Earth merely a matter of time.

The satellite's descent and its disintegration in the atmosphere were witnessed by many residents across the USA. Social media was flooded with photos and videos of the fireball in the sky that resulted from the dead satellite. Some observers mistook this fireball for a meteor shower. McDowell noted that the satellite was relatively small and should have completely burned up in the atmosphere, although there remains a chance that some small fragments could have fallen to the ground.

The Superview 1-02 satellite was one of two satellites in the Superview 1 series launched into orbit in December 2016. The other satellite was named Superview 1-01. Instead of placing the satellites in a circular orbit at an altitude of approximately 530 km above the Earth's surface, they were positioned in an elliptical orbit ranging from 214 to 524 km above our planet. Over time, both satellites gradually ascended even higher and commenced their mission.

The Superview 1 satellites were the first commercial satellites in China's history designed for Earth observation using high-resolution cameras. Each satellite weighed about 560 kg. In the following years, SpaceView launched a series of additional satellites to create a constellation of spacecraft for Earth imaging.

The Superview 1-02 satellite became the second Chinese space object to burn up in the skies over North America in recent days. On December 20, a Chinese rocket disintegrated in the atmosphere over Puerto Rico.

The "Chang Zheng-4B" rocket, measuring 44 meters in length, was launched on August 16 of this year. It deployed classified Yaogan-43 satellites into space. The first stage of the rocket remained in orbit but then began to lose altitude, ultimately re-entering the atmosphere, breaking apart, and burning up at approximately 113 km altitude.