Chinese satellite burns up over New Orleans, creating fireballs in the sky

Hundreds of stargazers reported fireballs in the southeastern United States earlier this week. But this wasn’t a natural phenomenon – just another case of dead satellites littering Earth’s orbit.

The fireworks came from a defunct Chinese satellite that re-entered Earth’s atmosphere Saturday night and burned up over New Orleans, Louisiana. According to reports shared online, the satellite’s reentry caused bright streaks in the sky over several states, including Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi. Although the satellite poses no threat to observers, its uncontrolled re-entry highlights the need for better regulation of non-operational space debris.

🚨Update: A Chinese surveillance satellite entered the Earth’s atmosphere over New Orleans, Louisiana!pic.twitter.com/UGyp8Tx5dz

— US Civil Defense News (@CaptCoronado) December 22, 2024

The American Meteorological Society received 152 witnesses reports It reported a fireball sighting around 11pm ET on December 22, but dismissed the incident as “not a real fireball.” Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell later identified the source of the fireball as SuperView 1-02, a Chinese imaging satellite that re-entered over New Orleans before heading north. he wrote On X.

The Chinese, with an orbital altitude date of GJ1-02, sat over the US again last night pic.twitter.com/RrjEncYdvF

— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) December 22, 2024

SuperView 1-02 was operated by Beijing-based SpaceView and was launched in December 2016 as one of two satellites in a constellation for civilian remote sensing. The two satellites were China’s first high-resolution Earth imaging satellites Space.com. They were initially placed in the wrong orbit, ended up in an elliptical orbit instead of a circular one, and had to gradually raise their orbits over time to begin their missions.

SuperView 1-02 was decommissioned nearly two years ago and released to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere in an uncontrolled manner. Some satellite operators equip their spacecraft with the ability to perform controlled re-entry to minimize risk, but China is known. bad orbital tag. “South China Morning Post” newspaper considered the incident to be minor. to report adding that the re-entry of the satellite “created a spectacular light show but posed no real threat” and that “the incident was deliberate”.

Defunct satellites orbiting the Earth are at serious risk of collisions with other spacecraft. There are currently more than 27,000 orbital debris tracked There are also many smaller pieces by the Defense Department’s global Space Surveillance Network it floats around undetected. To move at high speed, even as smaller pieces of material micrometeoroidscould endanger active spacecraft in orbit.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is developing ways to improve spacecraft re-entry capabilities to help reduce orbital debris. The Destructive Re-entry Assessment Container Facility (DRACO)Launched in 2027, the satellite is designed to collect data as it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere after a short mission. A better understanding of the science of reentry could help scientists design future spacecraft without the risk of harming other machines in space.