--- title: "Burning Rocket Debris Leave Epic Streak Across Florida Sky" description: "An array of fiery streaks was spotted soaring across the sky over Florida early Thursday morning, believed to be the remains of a deployed Chinese rocket." date: "2023-03-28" modified: "2023-03-28" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/burning-rocket-debris-leave-epic-streak-across-florida-sky" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "fireball" - "meteors" - "the digest" --- # Burning Rocket Debris Leave Epic Streak Across Florida Sky ![An array of fiery streaks was spotted soaring across the sky over Florida early Thursday morning, believed to be the remains of a deployed Chinese rocket.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Fire in the Sky Floridians on early Thursday morning were stunned by an epic display of what appeared to be fireballs streaking across the night sky. The American Meteor Society received 18 reports from different eyewitnesses, almost all within Florida. "It appeared to me that it was something breaking up in our atmosphere," one [witness reported](), noting that there were small dots leading the "elongated orange streaks." Another [reported]() a "rushing sound like a blasting through wind or a rocket." Partygoers in Miami, though, probably got the best look — and the video they captured is an absolute must-see, in which lines of fire can be seen eerily soaring overhead in an awe-inspiring procession. https://youtu.be/Qg-kCFKMbOo ## Rocket Remains Though clearly burning up in the atmosphere, the [AMS says]() the object "was not a fireball" — which in its parlance, refers specifically to a luminous meteor. Instead, it looks like it's actually the remains of a recently deployed Chinese rocket falling through the atmosphere and getting incinerated upon reentry. The Chinese rocket was a KZ-1A designed to launch and deploy satellites, and took off only the day before the sightings — so clearly it's a pretty strong candidate. Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who frequently monitors space launches, [tweeted]() that the fourth stage of the rocket "made a post-deployment burn to lower perigee to only 114 km, leading to an (uncontrolled) reentry over Florida only a day later." In other words, the expendable rocket deployed at a fairly low altitude and failed to push itself far enough away from Earth's orbit, resulting in its fiery reentry to our atmosphere. https://twitter.com/WxDickey/status/1638848685567283202 ## Bad Practice The China National Space Administration — roughly the equivalent of NASA — has caught a lot of flak over the years for the seemingly careless scattering of junk from its rockets. Last November, both NASA and the European Space Agency [criticized China]() for its reliance on multistage rockets whose discarded parts frequently make uncontrolled reentries as potentially dangerous falling space debris. Still, as reckless as the practice may be, the odds of the junk actually landing on someone is pretty low — and in this case, the small KZ-1A rocket probably burned up entirely before ever touching down. **More on stuff in sky:** *[Jettisoned From Space Station, Burning Space Junk Streaks Across California Sky]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()