Rocket lights up local skies
Jim Erickson, Rocky Mountain News
Thursday, January 4, 2007
A spent Russian booster rocket reentered the Earth's atmosphere over Colorado and Wyoming early this morning, blazing a fiery path across pre-dawn skies, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
An initial report indicated that a chunk of the SL-4 rocket landed in Riverton, Wyo., near Highway 28, at around 6:13 a.m. MST, according to NORAD. No damage was reported, and the debris is not believed to be hazardous, according to a NORAD news release.
But Capt. Mark Stone of the Riverton Police Department said the fiery object streaked slowly across the skies above Riverton, moving from north to south, and appeared to hit in a remote, uninhabited region of national forest about 55 miles southwest of Riverton, near South Pass on Highway 28.
The incoming space debris put on a spectacular show for commuters and others in Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico.
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