Cape Town had its own "it's a bird! It's a plane!" moment when multiple reports that a helicopter had crashed off the coast of Blouberg on Friday night saw rescuers across the spectrum mobilised, only to turn up... nothing.

Reports included suggestions of "something flying through the air that looked like a shooting star or rocket", complete with green light and in one case, a flash of flame, which suddenly disappeared.

By yesterday morning not a scrap of wreckage had turned up, however. And NSRI spokesman Craig Lambinon reported that what the witnesses were likely to have seen was in fact "meteorite fall".

He said it had come to light that an Airlink pilot reported seeing "what he believed to be a meteorite fall across the western part of the Western Cape, at the same time as the crash sightings".

"The pilot had just reached cruising altitude in an Airlink passenger plane after taking off from Durban's airport, heading towards Cape Town."

Lambinon added that more witnesses at the Cape Town International Airport also reported seeing what was believed to be a meteorite fly across the West Coast skyline.

NASA officials announced Thursday that plans to alter the orbit of the International Space Station (IIS) would not move forward.

In a statement released to reporters, NASA officials noted that the space station's path will not put the massive orbiting module in the path of two large chunks of space debris.

"Additional tracking Wednesday night of both the Cosmos satellite debris and the Indian rocket body debris resulted in a high degree of confidence that neither object would pose any possibility of a conjunction with the International Space Station and a debris avoidance maneuver scheduled for Thursday morning was cancelled by the flight control team at Mission Control," NASA officials said in an update Thursday.

Mission Control says there is a high degree of confidence neither object will come too close to the space station. The worrisome debris contained fragments of an Indian rocket. NASA issued an alert late Thursday, warning that the space debris could pose a risk to the ISS. Three astronauts - NASA's Sunita Williams, Russia's Yuri Malenchenko and Japan's Akihiko Hoshide - are currently working aboard the space station.

We had here in Finland a very bright bolide during the night of 20th/21st September, at 00:34:41 UT. I attach the FINE images from Mikkeli by Aki Taavitsainen and Jani Lauanne and the color image (with web camera) by Harri Frestadius in Lappeenranta:

Clear skies allowed a clear view of the fire balls which were witnessed right across the UK, Ireland and even parts of north west Europe.

Bright 'meteor-like' tails could be seen in the sky for approximately two minutes at 10.55pm on Friday night.

Reports of "bright balls of fire with tails of fire" came from across the region, including Belfast, Ballymena, Newtonabbey and Derry.

But experts are not clear on whether the spectacular show was a space rock burning up or a piece of space junk, such as a piece of satellite or aircraft burning up in the atmosphere.

Dr Andy McCrea, former president of the Irish Astronomical Association said the display was "spectacular" and "fairly unusual" he said it was unlikely that it was a meteor shower.

20 SEP 2012 P Kelly Auburn, nh, USA 22:40:00

2sec N-E Brite white and orange bright firework like Yes Twin tails

20 SEP 2012 Todd James Portsmouth, RI, USA 2245 EST

4 to 5 seconds South to North Initially white, turned orange, then turned greenish-blue as it got low on horizon Like a flare but definately not a flare. Yes, from the "ball" itself. The tail was approximately 5 times longer than the ball itself. The tail remained a bright white even though the ball changed color. Was definately not the typical "shooting star".

Meteor Bot Internet Query (MBIQ) Bot has just detected a meteor fireball event over California at approximately 10:45 pm 16 September 2012.

16 SEP 2012 steven fremont, california usa 2229 pacific time

2 seconds headed north before disappearing into horizon blue with white trail blue/white it had a tail, it was bright blue, i seen it fly, my view was slightly block by a tree but i still see the light shining through. hope u guys find it

16 SEP 2012 Sana San Jose, CA pacific

left to right red-blue-greenish VERY bright ? This was the largest thing I have seen in the sky in my whole 27 years on this planet.

16 SEP 2012 Jennifer B Paso Robles, California USA 22:39:00

6 seconds North White, many small ones behind it extremely bright, like full moon yes best one I have ever seen

17 SEP 2012 Noel Saipan, CNMI 1900

2-3 seconds East to West when facing South Bright reddish/orange/white center Sun None rapid descent path as if to impact southwest of Mariana Islands

17 SEP 2012 Jeff, Davis, Grant Levy Barrigada, Guam 0840 Z

10 secs S-N white to Green to Blue bright as sun fragmented into two sections very long streak

18 SEP 2012 Marko-mb Slovenia 20:50 UTC+1

6 sec or I was facing West and saw it from W to N Bright yellow long trail. Like I saw it burning. very bright I saw like it splited before it burned totaly I had never seen anything like it and Ive seen many meteorites during nights. Bright, long lasting, very long trail and like it fell apart before burned totaly

18 SEP 2012 kev1ar Bratislava, Slovakia 18:43 UTC

10 sec 280 W moving Left to N bright green bright more than city lights divided into smaller pieces like by explosion no photo

17 SEP 2012 Gill Golding South Devon TQ7 2JG UK 9.30 - 9.45pm

approx 4sec approx E-W white fireball with long tail large firework (rocket) No None

17 SEP 2012 Tom Restronguet, Cornwall 20.4

3 sec East to West Green fireball, no sound Bright as the moon Yes fragmenting Appeared quite low in the sky, about 30 degrees above the horizon, very beautiful and surprising.

17 SEP 2012 Helen Bilgic Sheffield United kingdom 20:44:00

5 seconds NW Bright light yellow sun No I just saw a bright light shooting towards the back of the factory at work

17 SEP 2012 F SWAIN North Shropshire UK 20.45 GMT

5 E-W large bright white fireball with tail moon yes seemed very close to earth

17 SEP 2012 A WOOD GLOUCESTER,UK 20:40 BST

2-3 SECS S-E;N-W LEFT TO RIGHT FACING WEST GREEN VENUS FRAGMENTED INTO SEVERAL PARTS NONE

First Event:

19 SEP 2012 Chris Blackburn, Lancs, UK 1925 BST

3 secs NE sky, R to L White with possible trail Venus No Visible in daylight

19 SEP 2012 Tom Redmayne Skidbrooke, Lincolnshire, 53.42 N, 0.16 E 19.23 British Summer Time

2 seconds Facing N.N.E it fell from Right to left, the S.E to the N.W Bright white becoming orange before disappearing. No sounds. Brighter than Venus not as bright as the sun. One large body and about 5 or 6 smaller pieces falling away beneath it as it fell The smaller fragments fell and disappeared first and the single, large piece was last to vanish. The angle was steeply downward at about 40 Degrees.

19 SEP 2012 Sara Coulson skidbrooke, Lincolnshire 19.20hrs

4 or 5secs E;W yellow/orange sun/venus yes whilst driving looking towards northern sky

19 SEP 2012 David Nash St. Neots, UK 19:23BST

6sec I didn't see the beginning though NE towards N, Right to left downwards approx 30 deg from horizontal Yellow+White no sound, trail Brighter than Venus No Was seen during (fading) daylight

19 SEP 2012 Barry Holbeach Lincolnshire, UK 19.22 UK

time 4 secs E - W facing to North very bright white fire sun no large long burn, half speed of perseid, low in sky / horizontal/ seemed to dip near finish/ don't think it completely burned up

19 SEP 2012 Simon Rummery Kirton, near Boston, Lincolnshire, UK 19.23 BST

It lasted about 2 seconds. I was driving north on the A16 road. The meteor fell from low in the NE to NNE at an angle of 30 degrees. It was a very bright fast moving green light with a trail. It was brighter than Venus. I didn't see any fragmentation. Observed through the car windscreen at early dusk; the sky was still light.

19 SEP 2012 Andrew Tyas Sheffield,UK 18:21 GMT (19:21 local time due to daylight saving)

Estimate that I was looking at it for 3-4 sec before it faded I was facing NE. Meteor travelled right to left and appeared go be heading slightly away from me so I'd estimate that it was heading towards NNE. It was about 20 deg above horizon and on trajectory about below horizontal Bright green. Didn't hear sound ( I was in car with radio on) Much brighter than Venus. Nowhere near as bright as Moon No. Have seen one fragmenting before. This was a single point None