USAF says object in the sky was NOT of man made origin

WASHINGTON - The flashing lights and booming sounds that were attributed to a piece of orbiting space junk were not the result of a man-made object, according to the United States Air Force.

In an e-mail sent to WTOP, Stefan Bocchino of the USAF Joint Space Operations Center says the "bright light" seen over parts of the East Coast Sunday night was not a result of a man-made space object.

The Joint Space Operations Center tracks more than 19,000 man-made objects in space, but no natural phenomena.

It was first believed that the lights and sounds were caused by space junk related to the Russian rocket Soyuz docking with the International Space Stations Saturday.

Geoff Chester, spokesman for the U.S. Naval Observatory, was nearly sure the object was the rocket's booster tanks for numbers of reasons. Whatever flashed through the sky followed the exact path the space junk was traveling over the eastern seaboard.

Witnesses describe the flashes in the sky as being colored with yellows and oranges. While fireballs usually throw sparks that appear green followed by trains of blue and red. The loud explosion accompanying the balls of fire in the sky also could be explained if the object was a rocket tank with residual amounts of booster fuel.

The flashes and booms that people heard prompted calls to 911 and the National Weather Service late Sunday night.

According to WVEC.com, the calls were numerous enough for the National Weather Service to release this statement late Sunday night:

"Numerous reports have been called in to this office and into local law enforcement concerning what appeared to be flashes of light in the sky over the Suffolk/Virginia Beach area. We are confident in saying that this was not lightning...and have been in contact with military and other government agencies to determine the cause. So far...we have not seen or heard of any damage from this and will continue to inquire as to the cause."

PIN THIS! USAF CONFIRMS UFOS EXIST!

Seems to be real news. I'm not sure anyone else will pick up on this though.

Now why would he tell everybody one thing and WTOP something else?

UPDATE: Russian rocket booster probably caused night light show

Staff, Media General News Service reports
Published: March 30, 2009

The fireball in the sky last night could have been caused by a Russian booster rocket falling toward earth, a U.S. Naval Observatory official says.

"It's perfectly consistent with what everybody's been describing," said Geoff Chester, a public relations officer with the observatory.

The booster - basically a big steel cylinder - was part of the Soyuz spacecraft that launched Thursday on a mission to the International Space Station, Chester said.

The booster was expected to fall toward earth on a path, headed east, across the Chesapeake Bay region, Chester said. Streaks of light were reported from North Carolina to Maryland.

Stefan Bocchino, a spokesman for the Joint Space Operations Center in Southern California, part of the U.S. Air Force, said experts there were trying to determine if the lights were caused by part of the Russian craft or some other manmade object.

Other experts have suggested the light and an explosion-like sound were caused by a meteor burning up and breaking apart in the atmosphere.

A source at the National Weather Service also said the likely cause was a rocket booster returning to Earth that exploded over Cape Hatteras last night.

The Manassas News & Messenger reports that the weather service source said the Russian space program is to blame for the lights and sounds that prompted calls to law enforcement offices just before 10 p.m.

Two sheriff’s deputies in Dorchester County, Md., on the Eastern Shore reported seeing the sky light up about 9:45 p.m., according to the National Weather Service office in Sterling.

Earlier today, experts said the lights in the sky and sounds that many people heard could have been caused by a big meteor burning up in the Earth’s atmosphere.

"Some very bright ones are known to explode," said Phillip Ianna, a professor emeritus of astronomy at the University of Virginia.

Thousands of small meteors, the size of sand grains or dust, enter the atmopshere each day, but bigger ones — the size of a house, perhaps — are "fairly rare," hitting our atmosphere every other year or so, Ianna said.

Meteorologist Sonia Mark at the National Weather Service's Wakefield station said the phone was "ringing off the hook." Suffolk police were looking into "reports of great balls of fire landing on the ground."

One motorist who saw the lights while driving east of the Staples Mill Road exit of Interstate 64 described it as similar to "what falls away from big fireworks" but "much bigger" and "from much higher up."

Richmond resident Jay McNamara, who was returning home with his wife on River Road when they saw an object in the southeastern sky, described it as "very, very bright" and lasting less than a second.

At the Portsmouth police dispatch center, dispatcher Keith Freas said he felt the building shake and a thunderlike rumble. But he said he saw no lights.

(Richmond Times-Dispatch staff writers Rex Springston and Bill McKelway contributed to this report.)

Meteors are non-manmade objects as well people shouldent twist words eventhough i dont think it was a meteor

Everyone confirms that there are objects that fly and can't be identified on the spot.

USAF confirms this was probably space debris, even if it was ET craft.