Mysterious bright flash over Kyiv was not a NASA satellite

A bright flash that lit up the skies over Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, caused much speculation on Wednesday night. Officials in Kyiv initially suspected it was a NASA satellite falling to Earth, but the US space agency told the BBC it was still in orbit. 

The Ukrainian air force suggested the flash might have been a meteorite, but it was confident it had not been caused by a Russian air attack. The bright glow was observed in the sky around 22:00, and an air raid alert was activated, but air defence was not in operation. 

The head of Kyiv’s military administration suggested that the flash was the result of the re-entry of the retired NASA RHESSI spacecraft, used to observe solar flares, into Earth’s atmosphere. However, a spokesperson for NASA told the BBC that the satellite was still in orbit at the time of the flash and would re-enter Earth’s atmosphere during the night. 

Ukrainian social media has been filled with theories and memes about what the flash could have been, with aliens being a popular theme.