Impressive reentry of Russian SL-4 rocket body over Dubai, UAE
Featured image: Russian SL-4 rocked body reentry over the Middle East, October 16, 2017. Credit: mpozdeev
An atmospheric reentry of a Russian SL-4 rocket body created a spectacular show over the Middle Eastern countries late Monday, October 16, 2017, witnessed and recorded by numerous people. The event lasted more than 55 seconds and was visible from Iraq, Bahrain, UAE and Oman.
Although it indeed looked like just another piece of space junk burning in the atmosphere, the UAE media reported that the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre confirmed a meteor has passed through the skies of Dubai. At the time of press, however, the space center had no official statement posted on their website or social media profiles.
The rocket was launched October 14, 2017 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Russia on an ISS resupply mission. The orbit of its used body decayed 25 minutes earlier than originally predicted, making it end its life over the populated area just after 15:28 UTC (19:28 local time, Dubai), October 16.
Teo Blašković founded The Watchers in 2011 and edited it until 2026, covering seismic and volcanic activity, extreme weather, space weather and near-Earth objects. Articles on this page are his archive.
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I’m looking for any witness reports that interpreted the fireball swarm not as independent lights in formation but as lights attached to a larger single vehicle. That is a very common misinterpretation mode of such apparitions. There are many comments on Arabic-language sites, can somebody scan them and identify any specific shape descriptions, please?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNbZ4TAGtCE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEj2XTsZaEo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9SWfPvD5Gk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LOyPryvcnE