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Sunday's Child - Nikolas
Expert: Fireball Over Texas Likely Chinese Craft 2/28/13
Associated Press
2/28/13
TYLER, Texas - A scientist says fireballs that streaked over the East
Texas skies before dawn were likely pieces of a rocket booster that launched a
Chinese satellite into orbit.
Shanyn Beason of Beckville, about 25 miles southeast of Longview, told
KLTV-TV of Tyler that she saw multicolored streaks of light shooting southeast
to northwest over her head just after 3 a.m. Wednesday.
Harvard astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell tells The Associated Press that a
Chinese CZ-4B rocket booster had been in a decaying orbit after lifting a
satellite into orbit on May 10. It was expected to re-enter the atmosphere about
the time as Beason saw the streaks of light, and McDowell says it's highly
likely they were fragments from the Chinese booster.