JAKARTA – California residents were shocked on the morning of Tuesday April 2 when streak gold from the explosion was visible over the Los Angeles sky. Initially, local residents thought it was a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that was launched six hours earlier or a giant meteor that burned up as it passed through Earth’s atmosphere.
However, aerospace researchers have said that the fiery object was the orbital object of China’s Shenzhou-15 rocket which was launched in 2022.
The 3,300-pound object, a secondary part of the rocket, was not designed to safely return to Earth’s atmosphere and was planned to circle planet Earth along with tons of other space junk.
Witnesses of the explosion posted a video on social media showing the object streaking across the sky at around 01:40 a.m. local time, with residents asking what it was.
One person wrote on X: “I think this is debris or something related to the SpaceX launch from the night before,’ while another simply asked: “DudeWhat’s that?”
When news emerged that it was part of a Chinese rocket, comments about the country’s involvement started pouring in.
Heather Golden, a spokesperson for the Aerospace Corporation, told Dailymail.com that although there was speculation that the explosion belonged to SpaceX, analysis revealed that it was not a US rocket.
“Our analysis suggests that the object seen re-entering over Los Angeles this morning is the orbital module from China’s November 2022 launch of Shenzhou-15 to their space station,” Golden said.
The Shenzhou-15 rocket carried three astronauts when it launched from Mongolia in November 2022. The 17,857-pound Shenzhou-15 rocket consists of several modules including a reentry module that carries astronauts safely back to Earth and a service section that houses hardware such as solar panels and life support necessary for the mission.
Shenzhou-15’s third sector, the orbital module, is a living space for astronauts and hosts scientific instruments, crew-operated equipment and other types of payload required for the mission.
Tag: roket los angeles china
2024-04-04 20:05:00
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