Moment part a CHINESE rocket explodes over California after rouge reentry ... trends now
Californians received a shock in the early hours of Tuesday morning when golden streaks from an apparent explosion appeared over Los Angeles.
Locals had believed it was the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched six hours prior or a giant meteor that combusted as it shot through Earth's atmosphere.
Aerospace researchers have determined that the fiery object was the orbital object of China's Shenzhou-15 rocket that launched in 2022.
The China-owned space junk comes just months after the nation infiltrated the US by flying a spy balloon over an Air Force base in Montana.
A piece from the Shenzhou-15 rocket (pictured) exploded over California on Tuesday morning
The 3,300-pound orbital module, a secondary piece of the rocket, was not designed to safely reenter Earth's atmosphere and was set to circle our planet with the tons of other space junk.
Witnesses of the explosion posted videos on social media, showing the object streaking across the sky at around 1:40 a.m. PT, and questioned what it was.
One person wrote on X: 'I’m guessing this is debris or something else related to the SpaceX launch from earlier this evening,' while another simply asked: 'Dude, what was that?'
As news surfaced that it was a piece from a Chinese-owned rocket, comments about the country's involvement began rolling in.
'China out there just doing whatever they want.' wrote one person on X.
Another person commented: 'Someone in China is getting fired today. Not because it [the rocket] came down near LA, but because it missed.'
The Aerospace Corporation - a federally funded space research and development center - told BBC that despite speculations that the explosion belonged to SpaceX, an analysis revealed it wasn't a US-owned rocket.
Instead,
