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26 Mar, 2021 12:29

US stargazers treated to a visual feast as deorbiting Falcon 9 second stage gets obliterated in spectacular fire rain (VIDEOS)

US stargazers treated to a visual feast as deorbiting Falcon 9 second stage gets obliterated in spectacular fire rain (VIDEOS)

People in Oregon and Washington witnessed an unusual spectacle on Thursday night, when a used second stage of a Falcon 9 rocket broke down and burned up in the atmosphere over their heads.

Space X is yet to confirm that the debris filmed by many amused witnesses on the US northwestern coast was part of its rocket ending its life cycle, but its origin was identified by multiple amateur astronomers.

The fiery shower in the sky puzzled quite a few witnesses on the ground as the brightly burning debris was passing over.

The Falcon 9 rocket in question was launched on March 4 and successfully deployed a batch of Starlink satellites.

Its reusable first stage was successfully recovered, but the second stage didn’t execute a proper deorbit burn. So, after three weeks of speed decay, it finally came back to Earth in an eye-catching rainfall of evaporating metal.

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