On December 30, an unidentifiable object fell on the small village of Mukuku in Kenya, which fortunately did not hurt anyone. The country’s authorities have already conducted a preliminary study of it and found out that it deals with a separation ring from a launch vehicle.
Fall in Kenya
On December 30 at around 3:00 pm local time (1200 GMT) an unknown object fell on Kenya from space. It happened near Mukuku village in Makueni County. Fortunately, there were no casualties, and local residents immediately informed the authorities. The crash site was cordoned off and specialists from the local space agency began working there.
And now it has become known that experts have established what it is. Of course, there’s no sign of aliens. The scientists separately thanked the farmers who, instead of spreading panic, immediately contacted them. A separation ring from a launch vehicle fell near Mukuku.
The rocket structural fragment that is responsible for separating the stages at launch weighs 500 kg in and has a diameter of 2.5 meters. Theoretically, this ring should be designed to burn up during re-entry. This time, however, it reached the surface of the Earth and gave everyone a big scare.
Space debris problem
From the fact that the object is of terrestrial origin, the situation has not become clearer. The Kenyan space agency has not yet disclosed who the manufacturer of that ring is. For some time now, space debris has been a threat not only to vehicles in orbit, but also to people on Earth.
The Chinese space program is especially famous for creating danger during launches. The engineers there don’t always make sure that all the lower stage elements burn up in the atmosphere. At least, NASA experts accuse them of that not without reason.
It is true that they themselves regularly face very similar questions. For example, in early 2024, a lawsuit against NASA was filed by a Florida family whose house roof was rammed by a piece of metal that had previously been part of a rocket structure.
According to phys.org
