Secondo quanto spiegato dall'United States Strategic Command in un post su Facebook, si sarebbe trattato di un pezzo di spazzatura spaziale già catalogato: il corpo di un vettore Russo SL-4.

U.S. Strategic Command's Joint Functional Component Command for Space (JFCC Space), through the Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC), removed a Russian SL-4 rocket body from the U.S. satellite catalog as a decayed object after it reentered the atmosphere yesterday over North America (vicinity Arizona) at approximately 1908 MST. In addition to this object, the JSpOC tracks 16,000 other on-orbit cataloged objects, which are listed in USSTRATCOM's Satellite Catalog and the publicly-available website www.Space-Track.org. That service is a key element of our commitment to provide space situational awareness for spaceflight safety. The effects of the atmosphere on reentering objects preclude the JSpOC from accurately tracking any reentries after initial contact with the atmosphere occurs. Questions about the rocket body should be directed to Russian authorities, particularly Roscosmos (Russian Federal Space Agency).