Fireball In Sky Caused By Rocket Debris, Military Says

A white ball of light with a fiery tail that streaked across the night skies over Arizona was debris from a newly launched Russian rocket re-entering the earth’s atmosphere, the U.S. Strategic Command said Wednesday.

Matthew Miller with the U.S. Strategic Command’s Joint Space Operations Center, which tracks worldwide space missions for domestic safety. They say it was part of the body of an old SL4 rocket.

“It’s not something people need to worry about”, said David Wright, a space-debris expert.

Newfoundlanders took to social media last week to report another “mysterious fireball” streaking across the sky. “It is possibly SL-4 R/B – NORAD 39033, a rocket body launched on December 2012”.

The light spotted in and around Las Vegas was reportedly seen as far away as Bakersfield and Sacramento in California. Lindstrom, a bartender with a side business as a videographer, said his first instinct was to grab his cellphone camera.

Russia’s Federal Space Agency declined to comment.

Hannah Thoburn, an expert on the internal politics of Russian Federation and Ukraine from Hudson Institute, noted that current tensions between the United States and Russian Federation could be fueling skepticism of government statements.