Fireball across Alberta, Saskatchewan was a rocket re-entering atmosphere

A fireball moving slowly across the sky had people in Alberta and Saskatchewan wondering what it was.

It turns out it was a rocket body.

The U.S. Strategic Command told Global News it was an Antares rocket body re-entering the atmosphere and burning up.

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“U.S. Strategic Command’s Joint Functional Component Command for Space, through the 18th Space Control Squadron (SPCS) removed an Antares rocket body from the U.S. satellite catalog as a decayed object after it re-entered the atmosphere Nov. 24, 2017, over North America (vicinity Saskatchewan) at approximately 11:48 p.m. CDT,” Maj. Brian Maguire, chief of current operations with U.S. Strategic Command, said in a statement to Global News.

The Antares rocket was launched on Nov. 12 to resupply the International Space Station.

Scientists had predicted it would re-enter the atmosphere around the time that it did.

Maguire said the SPCS tracks “more than 23,000 other on-orbit cataloged objects” which is a key element to “provide space situational awareness for spaceflight safety.”

He added that SPCS cannot accurately track re-entries once initial contact with the atmosphere occurs.