Re-entry Sightings and Debris Recovery of 2008-010B Spain - 2015 November 03 UTC

Pre-dawn sightings of a fireball over Spain on November 3, 2015, and the subsequent discovery of three composite overwrap pressure vessel (COPV) spheres and other suspected space debris, pointed to a re-entry as the cause. The resource of record for re-entries is the USSTRATCOM (U.S. Strategic Command); however, its Space Track web site reported neither predictions nor historical data that correlated with the events in Spain. The mystery was solved by estimating the orbital elements from the fireball sightings and positions of the debris, and finding a matching object in the orbital data of independent sources. The re-entering object was the Centaur upper stage with the international designation 2008-010B, and the USSTRATCOM catalogue number 32707.