Boxing Day Splash: Russian Rocket Debris hits Labrador coast

U.S. Lt.-Cmdr. Gary Ross said the North American Aerospace Defense Command has identified the debris as part of a Russian rocket used to fire three satellites into space on Dec. 25.

"It did re-enter the atmosphere over Eastern Labrador in Canada and continued on its trajectory out into the North Atlantic Ocean," Ross said.

"I don't have any information on what the planned descent was at all."

The Canadian Coast Guard said the situation happened so quickly, it didn't have time to issue a maritime warning.

The coast guard wasn't able to provide any other information on what happened or what risk it may have posed. However, space educator Randy Attwood said the piece of rocket didn't present much of a threat to people.

Lt.-Cmdr. Gary Ross, a U.S. navy spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defence Command, said the launch and re-entry of the rocket body was routine.

"Officials from our command deemed it not a threat to populated land areas," he said in an interview from Norad headquarters at Colorado Springs, Colo. "We just monitored it until it landed in the ocean."