Mysterious Fireballs Streaking Across Sky

Residents of California experienced a startling sight in the early hours of Tuesday when they observed a sequence of luminous, fiery trails traversing the night sky. Captured on video in Moreno Valley, roughly 70 miles east of Los Angeles, these glowing objects moved in a straight line across the heavens around 1:30 a.m., leaving viewers in awe and confusion.


An observer in the video is heard exclaiming in surprise at the spectacle, initially mistaking it for a meteor shower. The event quickly sparked a flurry of speculation on social media, with some suggesting that the lights could be remnants from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the night before from Vandenberg Space Force Base. This launch had successfully placed 22 Starlink satellites into orbit.

Others theorized that the debris might be linked to the re-entry of the Chinese Shenzhou 15 Orbital Module rocket, anticipated to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere near Los Angeles around 1:45 a.m. local time. As the video concludes, the brilliant display appears to fade and disappear.

Inquiries to SpaceX and NASA by Fox News Digital regarding the event went unanswered at the time of reporting. Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported no unusual aircraft activities in the vicinity.

Jonathan McDowell, a respected astrophysicist and satellite tracker, suggested to Space.com that the debris likely originated from the Chinese orbital module, which had transported three astronauts to China’s Tiangong space station in November 2022. Unlike the Shenzhou reentry module used by astronauts to return safely to Earth, this module is not designed for a controlled re-entry at the mission’s conclusion.

This theory challenges the notion that the spectacle was related to the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch, emphasizing that while Falcon 9’s first stage is recoverable and reused, its upper stage is indeed disposable but not typically responsible for such visible phenomena.

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