[Gateway] A Chinese military rocket disintegrated over Texas on Wednesday, USNI News reported.The rocket, which was launched from China, delivered military surveillance satellites to space in June and made its way back to earth on Wednesday over the United States.
The 8,000 pound rocket made its way back to earth on Wednesday over Texas.
The debris field could be miles wide and several hundred feet long, USNI News reported.
USNI News reported:
The second stage of a Chinese rocket that delivered a trio of military surveillance satellites to space in June disintegrated over Texas on Wednesday, USNI News has learned.
The four-ton component of a Chang Zheng 2D ’Long March’ rocket punched through the atmosphere on Wednesday over Texas at 17,000 miles per hour and disintegrated, two defense officials confirmed to USNI News on Thursday.
U.S. military officials have yet to find any debris from the rocket stage, however, USNI News understands the debris field could be miles wide and several hundred miles long.
According to North American Aerospace Defense Command satellite tracking data, the stage was a piece of space junk in low Earth orbit before it made its unscheduled descent.
Based on the NORAD tracking data, the stage belonged to a mission that delivered three military electronic signals surveillance satellites that were meant to collect signals data from the South China Sea, astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics told USNI New on Thursday.
The rocket took off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center on June 23 in central China.
