The fireworks were burning debris from a Chinese rocket that reentered the earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean. Thousands in the east and southeast Asia witnessed the alluring show across the night sky. While many shared clips believing it to be a meteor shower, astronauts and scientists were quick to dispel it and set things straight.

A Chinese booster rocket made an uncontrolled return to Earth on Saturday, leading to accusing Beijing of not sharing information about the potentially hazardous object's descent.

US Space Command confirmed the People's Republic of China (PRC) Long March 5B (CZ-5B) re-entered over the Indian Ocean at approx 10:45 am MDT on 7/30," on Twitter.

Chinese space officials, for their part, said the rocket body reentered at 119.0 degrees east longitude and 9.1 degrees north latitude. That location is over the open ocean, just off the coast of Palawan Island, which is part of the Philippines.

Debris from that flight ended up landing harmlessly in the Indian Ocean. But the fact that the crash occurred at all does not reflect well on China and its spaceflight program, experts say.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson criticized Beijing on Twitter, saying the failure to share details of the rocket's descent was irresponsible and risky.

This was the third uncontrolled fall for a Long March 5B core stage to date. About 10 days after the rocket's debut launch, in May 2020, pieces of the rocket body rained back to Earth over West Africa, some of them hitting the ground on Ivory Coast.

The rocket will fly again soon as well: A Long March 5B is expected to launch the third and final Tiangong module this fall. There will probably be more Chinese space junk drama after that, but perhaps not for too much longer.