It’s kinda funny how much great power military stuff ends up being two mid-ranking bureaucrats who, dispute being on opposite sides have more in common with each other than anyone else, phoning one another and going “hey, we’re doing something here”

“oh, shit, my bad. We’ll get out of your way”

Sounds like a retired satellite was de-orbited. It’s pretty common for satellites in low Earth orbit to be deliberately sent to burn up over the south Indian ocean or the south Pacific, rather than die on-orbit and be uncontrollable navigation hazards.