Sky watchers out West catch fiery rocket

LAS VEGAS — A Chinese rocket body streaking across the night sky over the Western United States lit up social media as people shared photos and video of the bright object.

The Chinese CZ-7 reentered the atmosphere Wednesday night, U.S. Strategic Command spokeswoman Julie Ziegenhorn confirmed. That’s when people in Nevada, Utah and California took to social media to report a small fireball streaking across the sky.

Photographer Ian Norman was taking pictures of the night sky with friends in Alabama Hills, Calif., when he saw the light and started recording, thinking the flash was a meteor.

“It was really strange to see something that bright,” he said yesterday. “I thought it was just a really big meteor, but it was so slowmoving, I had never seen anything like that.”

The former SpaceX engineer said it was the first reentry he’s seen.

“It was a cool experience, it was beautiful to see it going across the sky,” Norman said.

The rocket took off June 25 from China’s Wenchang Satellite Launch Center, according to the website of the Aerospace Corp., which provides research-and-development and advisory services to the U.S. Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office, among others.

In announcing the launch of the new-generation rocket, China said it marked a milestone in its space program, keeping it on schedule to place its second space station into orbit this year.

Rockets heading to orbit shed components that fall back to Earth. Of 27 previous re-entries this year, witnesses reported seeing five, according to the Aerospace Corp. website.