Air Force explains what created the fireball that lit up South Florida predawn sky

A ball of light that blinked into South Florida’s inky predawn sky Wednesday before bursting into pieces with dazzling long-lived tails was a hunk of cosmic scrap metal, one of 25,000 objects the Air Force tracks in space.

The flaming debris, part of a Chinese CZ3 rocket body, was forecast to reenter the atmosphere Wednesday morning but no one predicted the delight and awe it would spark in those who saw it lazily fall toward Earth just after 2 a.m.

At least two people called the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, one who said there were UFOs over the skies west of Boynton. Others thought maybe it was a meteor — part of the Alpha Capricornids shower — or airplanes flying too close together.

Maj. Cody Chiles, spokesman for the Joint Force Space Component Command, confirmed the lights were from the Chinese rocket reentering the atmosphere over the southeastern portion of the country.

The Long March 3B, also known as the CZ-3B and LM-3B, is a Chinese orbital carrier rocket. Introduced in 1996, it is launched from Launch Area 2 and 3 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Centerin Sichuan. A three-stage rocket with four strap-on liquid rocket boosters, it is currently the most powerful member of the Long March rocket family and the heaviest of the Long March 3 rocket family, and is mainly used to place communications satellites into geosynchronous orbits.

Before anyone thinks this may have been radioactive, this missile is not used for this. Since the early 21st century, China has deployed up to 10 Solid-fueled mobile DF-31 ICBMs, with a range of 7,200+ km and possibly up to 3 MIRVs. China has also developed the DF-31A, an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 11,200+ km with possibly 3–6 multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) capability.
A multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) is a missile payload containing several warheads, each capable of being aimed to hit a different target. The concept is almost invariably associated with intercontinental ballistic missiles carrying thermonuclear warheads, even if not strictly being limited to them. By contrast, a unitary warhead is a single warhead on a single missile. An intermediate case is the multiple reentry vehicle (MRV) missile which carries several warheads which are dispersed but not individually aimed. Only China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States are currently confirmed to possess functional MIRV missile systems. India, Israel and Pakistan are known or suspected to be developing or possessing MIRVs. It is “rumored” China gave it to North Korea.

The MIRV technology was originally developed by the US and given to China by Bill Clinton through Hughes and Loral corporations of which each was fined millions in the late 90’s against the concerns of his administration. In 2000, the State Department and Lockheed Martin agreed to a settlement with a fine of $13 million. In 2002, Loral announced a civil settlement with a fine of $20 million. In early 2003, Hughes and Boeing agreed to a civil penalty of $32 million. And the deals ended there along with the story as it was squashed.

https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/98-485.html

rwood

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