HIGHLIGHTS 

The re-entry of the rocket has been confirmed by Aerospace Corporation.

Five years ago, the Falcon 9 rocket successfully fired.

SpaceX has yet to acknowledge the rocket's demise.

WHY IN NEWS 

According to reports, a piece of a Falcon 9 rocket that fell into the Earth's atmosphere safely broke down over Mexico. The event happened five years after a SpaceX rocket successfully sent a satellite into orbit. This spacecraft assisted in the launch of the EchoStar 23 mission in March 2017. Frontera Espacial (@FronteraSpacial) posted a video of the collapsing rocket on February 6. The Aerospace Corporation acknowledged the re-entry as well. Though it was mentioned in numerous postings that it was an asteroid that plummeted and through stratosphere, the disintegrating section of the rocket is technically not a meteorite. A meteorite is a space rock that passes through the atmosphere of a planet and settles on the ground.

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FRONTERA SPECIAL'S TWEET : tweet on asteroid

The following is a translation of the tweet: 'A'meteorite' was witnessed dropping over northern Mexico tonight. It was the second stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched with the EchoStar23 mission in March 2017. In the atmosphere, it has totally dissolved.' The breakup of the Falcon 9 second stage has eluded both SpaceX and its creator, Elon Musk. This might be due to the fact that rocket stages are known to fall through Earth's atmosphere and completely burn up before reaching the surface. On their website, the Aerospace Corporation announced the re-entry of Falcon 9's upper stage into Earth's atmosphere. 

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At over 22,300 miles above Earth, the EchoStar 23 satellite was launched. The satellite was put into a geosynchronous transferring orbit around earth. It was intended to attain an elliptical altitude just above equator at 45 degrees west longitude at first. Its mission was to offer Brazil with broadcast, Internet, and other communications services.