The spacecraft didn't make it to orbit and went out in a blaze of glory instead.

A fireball that blazed a slow trail across the skies above Michigan and other nearby states and provinces Tuesday night wasn't a meteor but instead a spacecraft making an unexpected homecoming. .

Astronomer Jonathan McDowell, a leading observer of satellites and other orbital spacecraft, was quick to note on Twitter that the sightings corresponded very closely to "the exact predicted time Kosmos-2551 passed over the region.".