Whether we like to admit it or not, there’s no such thing as perfection in the world, and that’s not just another philosophical statement. It even applies to SpaceX rockets, regardless of how much work and time astronomers invested in those inventions.
According to Daily Mail, a Falcon 9 rocket created by SpaceX was spotted by cameras as it was breaking up in our atmosphere. However, this doesn’t necessarily indicate a problem. The event occurred in the skies over Mexico, meaning that it wasn’t too hard to witness the memorable event.
The upper stage went off
The upper stage of the rocket broke off, leaving smaller pieces behind that slowly got obliterated in the atmosphere. The rocket was launched five years ago, and it was carrying the Echostar 23 communications satellite. If you take a look at the footage, you could easily be fooled into thinking that it’s actually a meteorite there:
She’s breaking up, she’s breaking up!
Around 1am, Gen saw this incredible spectacle streak across the Cabo sky for over a minute. It is a spacecraft breaking at 17,500 MPH. Various parts break off the bright main mass, and separate from differential drag in the upper atmosphere. pic.twitter.com/B53sHz1axM— Steve Jurvetson (@FutureJurvetson) February 7, 2022
The satellite carried by the rocket into space was launched to geostationary orbit at a long distance from the surface of our planet: 22,300 miles.
NASA explained as Daily Mail quotes:
The satellite has a design life of fifteen years and will begin its service life in an orbital slot at a longitude of 45 degrees West.
‘However, it is able to operate in any of EchoStar’s eight geosynchronous slots allotted to Ku-band broadcasting satellites.
We don’t have an official statement from SpaceX yet regarding the disintegration of its rocket, but we can wait for it to arrive soon enough. However, such disintegrations are relatively normal for rockets, including the release of some of their parts all the way through our planet’s atmosphere. They will burn up completely due to air friction without posing any threat to inhabitants.
We’re eagerly looking to see more of these events in the sky in the future, while we also hope that everything regarding the rockets launched by SpaceX and other space agencies will go as planned.
