A falling Russian satellite created mysterious lights in the sky seen over Diamond Head in Waikiki and across the state Sunday night.

NASA’s Orbital Debris Program Office at the Johnson Space Center and the Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base said they believe the Cosmos 1315 satellite fell out of orbit and broke up over Hawaii at 11:02 p.m. local time.

"I was walking the beach in front of Duke’s. I looked up and saw this awesome sight," said Gary Cobb of Arizona, who snapped a smartphone picture of the satellite breaking up over Waikiki.

Cobb was walking on Waikiki Beach with his wife, Maria, when they both saw the satellite.

"It looked like a big shooting star or an airplane, and then it started breaking up and had a long tail behind it," Cobb said. "If you watch an airplane flying over you, I’d say it was going seven to eight times faster."

Cobb said the lights were visible for about six or seven seconds.

"Just wow. It’s pretty amazing," he said. Webcams on Mauna Kea also captured images of the falling satellite, the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii confirmed.

NASA said Russia launched the Cosmos 1315 satellite Oct. 14, 1981, and it served as an electronic and signals intelligence satellite before its technology became obsolete and the program was abandoned. The satellite weighed about 2.5 tons.

NASA estimates there are more than 21,000 pieces of orbital debris, man-made objects in orbit around Earth that no longer serve a useful purpose.

During the past 50 years, an average of one cataloged piece of debris has fallen back to Earth each day, according to NASA’s orbital debris website. But there have been no confirmed cases of injury or property damage from falling man-made debris.