Fireball seen from Florida to southern Illinois was Chinese space junk

A fireball in the sky seen late Saturday night caused a flurry of social media posts and calls to local authorities from New Orleans and Florida to southern Illinois and southeast Missouri.

The bright, slow-moving streak blazed across the southern sky shortly after 10 p.m. It took more than 30 seconds to break into pieces and fade out, giving shocked onlookers plenty of time to get out their cellphones and take spectacular videos.

After that, conjecture was rampant on what the fireball could be. Some speculated that it was part of a meteor shower which was peaking this weekend. However, shooting stars move much more quickly and only last for a few seconds.

Experts soon confirmed that it was the re-entry and disintegration of a defunct Chinese commercial imaging satellite — GaoJing 1-02 (Superview 1-02).

According to NASA, this satellite was launched in 2016 from China. The relatively small craft orbited 500 kilometers above Earth’s surface before beginning to slowly fall to Earth around two years ago, according to orbit history charts.

Re-entry and disintegration began over New Orleans and continued as the satellite traveled northward over Mississippi, Arkansas, and Missouri. 

Space debris like this falling back to Earth is very common, with 200-400 objects re-entering the atmosphere each year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A majority of the time, the pieces of space junk disintegrate completely without any debris reaching the ground.