Bundeswehr reassured:

Mysterious lights were rocket parts burning up

(Bild: philipus)

Mysterious lights in the sky caused excitement in Germany and Austria on Wednesday morning and prompted the odd emergency call. However, it soon became clear that the fireballs were caused by rocket parts burning up.

This was also confirmed by the German Armed Forces. According to a spokesperson for the Space Command in Uedem, North Rhine-Westphalia, it was a burnt-out rocket stage from a Falcon 9 rocket belonging to Elon Musk's US company SpaceX. There was no danger to the population.

Rocket was transporting 23 Starlink satellites
According to SpaceX, it had launched a Falcon 9 rocket with 23 Starlink communication satellites from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida during the night. According to the Bundeswehr spokesperson, the uncontrollable rocket stage later fell back into the Earth's atmosphere over the UK and burned up. Due to the clear visibility and the high altitude, the spectacle was easy to follow in the night sky in Germany and Austria. 

The launch of a Falcon 9 rocket(Bild: AFP)

According to the spokesperson on Wednesday, the re-entry of the rocket parts was a routine maneuver. It was not associated with any danger to people. It was not known whether any small parts that had not completely burnt up had reached the earth's surface.