By Eric MackÂ
A Russian rocket fell to a watery resting place on Wednesday after an uncontrolled re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
The Persei booster was launched on Dec. 27 by the heavy-lift Angara-A5 rocket for a test mission. However, the upper stage booster failed to enter the Earth’s orbit as planned. Instead, it began inevitably being pulled back toward the atmosphere by Earth’s gravity for an expected return to the surface in bits and pieces (if at all) on Wednesday afternoon, Pacific time.
“I do NOT regard this object as a significant risk,” leading orbit watcher and astronomer Jonathan McDowell said on Twitter.  “Reentries for a object with dry mass of about 4 tonnes may see some debris reach the ground, but not much.”
