A flash in the sky over Ukraine’s embattled capital sparked confusion and alarm on Wednesday. Authorities blamed the re-entry of a NASA satellite for the “bright glow”, seen at around 10pm local time. But the US space agency has denied any involvement.
Head of Kyiv’s military administration Sergiy Popko said on Telegram an air raid siren was activated in response to the glow but that “air defence was not in operation”.
The Ukrainian air force said the flash was “related to the fall of a satellite or meteorite”.
NASA was set to retire a 600-pound satellite the size which would re-enter the atmosphere sometime on Wednesday, however, a spokesperson for the space agency told AFP that had not yet occurred when the flash was spotted over Kyiv saying the satellite was “still in orbit”.
The spokesperson added: “However, that re-entry has not yet occurred…No other Nasa satellite re-entered the atmosphere earlier today.”
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The Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) was used to observe solar flares. It was launched into low earth orbit in 2002 and decommissioned in 2018, according to NASA.
Speculation on social media exploded following the flash with several channels posting videos showing the bright flare over Kyiv. A popular theme is that aliens caused the phenomenon.
“While social media is amused by flying saucer memes…please do not use the official symbol of the air force to create memes!” the Ukrainian air force said in a tweet.
NASA said that most of the RHESSI was expected to burn up as it re-entered atmosphere the atmosphere.
However, “some components are expected to survive re-entry”, according to NASA but the odds of debris harming someone are low – approximately one in 2,467.
The spacecraft was set to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere at approximately 9.30 pm Eastern US time with large parts of Asia and Africa in a potential debris field.
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