2003-02-01 - Eldridge, CA - Fireball

large slow moving ball of fire

On the morning of feb 1st 2003 at approximately 05:45hrs, i stepped outside of the building i was working in, to smoke a cigarette. It was still dark outside. I saw a large tumbling ball of fire slowly pass overhead, travelling a northeasterly direction. Though I could not determine its trajectory, I had the feeling that it was falling and would probably hit the earth no more than 20 to 40 miles from where i was standing. I measured the fireball by holding my arms straight out as if i were cradling the object in my open hands. My hands were approximatly 18 inches apart. As it passed overhead it never made a sound. I ran into the building to alert a co-worker who took a few minutes gathering her things. By the time we exited the building, day had broke, the fireball was gone and there was no trace of it, no trail of smoke, nothing. I know of two other people who witnessed this same event. What I remember most about the event was 1). The fireball appeared to b! e very large, 2). The fireball drifted across the sky very slowly, 3). The fireball was completely silent and 4). The fireball fell from the sky at the same time that the space shuttle columbia was reentering earths atmosphere. Freinds of mine suggested that perhaps i had seen peices of the space shuttle however the fireball I saw was bigger than a space shuttle. It wasnt until Columbia was somewhere over Nevada that it began to disintegrate and moments before it exploded into unrecognizable debris, columbia still maintained the outlineof a "plane" with a nose and fuseladge etc. what I saw was competely engulfed in flames and did not resemble a "plane" at all. Whatever it was was tumbling out of control with no appreciable form that i could discern