Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
On December 30, at around 3 pm local time, a massive metallic ring weighing approximately 1,100 pounds came crashing into the village. The loud impact startled residents, some of whom initially feared it was an attack or a bomb explosion.
Joseph Mutua, a local villager, recounted the event to Kenyan news station NTV. While tending to his cows, he heard "a loud bang" and assumed it might be a car accident. However, there were no signs of a collision nearby.
The source of the disturbance turned out to be space debris – a separation ring from a rocket launch. These components are typically designed to burn up harmlessly in the atmosphere or fall into remote areas. Occasionally, however, they veer slightly off course.
The Kenya Space Agency (KSA) was quickly alerted and sprang into action. Collaborating with local authorities, they secured the area and took the hefty ring into custody for further investigation. Preliminary assessments suggested the debris was from a launch vehicle re-entering Earth's atmosphere. The KSA also issued a statement assuring the public that this was an "isolated case" and that the metal object posed no threat to public safety.
[...] While rare, incidents like this are becoming more frequent as Earth's orbital paths become increasingly congested. As of last year, over 170 million pieces of space debris larger than a millimeter were orbiting our planet – remnants of rockets, defunct satellites, and other space operations. Most of this debris burns up safely upon re-entry, but some make it uncomfortably close to the ground.
In February of last year, the European Space Agency issued an alert about a satellite, heavier than a large car, making an uncontrolled re-entry to Earth. Additionally, in March, a piece of the International Space Station crashed through a family's house in Florida. At times, even the station itself has had to perform maneuvers to avoid incoming debris.
For now, Kenyan authorities are still investigating the exact origin of the fallen ring.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday January 08, @01:18PM (3 children)
I think it came from space.
More seriously I'm surprised its still a UFO. I've seen pictures elsewhere you'd think it would be pretty easy to identify.
So it's "about 8 feet" across, well shocking that no one on the continent of Africa owns measurement tools but even with something that vague, you can rule out a Falcon-9 because that's 3.7 meters across more like 12 feet, they can't be that far off. Could be a part from inside, I suppose.
Sometimes people are surprised that AFAIK the Russians are still launching R-7 rockets after 60 years (very hand wavy, "the soyuz booster". And this "eight foot ring" is probably not part of that because a R-7 is a hair under 3m more or less 10 feet across. They have redesigned the R-7 over the years. IIRC one of the older versions (like 20 years ago) had strap on side boosters around 8 feet in diameter, so "maybe".
Its probably not a part from an ancient Delta 4 Heavy those were like 5 meters across, not 8 feet. An Atlas 5 is a bit under 4 meters across. I think even the oldest Centaur upper stages are all at least a hair over 10 feet across.
IIRC even the small boosters on an Ariane 6 have a larger diameter than 8 feet. Even something "kind of small" like a CZ-6 from China is still larger than 8 feet.
Its hard to find a rocket small enough to use a ring that small, so I am betting that the strange silence about who owns it implies its of North Korean manufacture or some similar story and the usual people are studying it in secret.
If it were from a suborbital military missile test it would be ... suborbital ... and therefore a lot easier to figure out where it came from.
Its an interesting story to think about.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Unixnut on Wednesday January 08, @02:14PM (1 child)
Well, if they can measure it accurately it would at least give us an idea on whether it is metric or imperial units. If it was exactly 8 feet then I'd wager it is more likely from the US as they still make heavy use of imperial measurements in space engineering (even the UK, which is mixed metric/imperial, only uses metric for space engineering). If it is exactly 2.5m then I would say most likely metric, which only narrows it down to "probably not the US", but its still something.
As you say 8ft/2.43m is quite small for a space craft. Unless it is part of a rocket booster (the smallest I am aware of is the Ariane rocket booster at 3m (9.8ft) ) the only things smaller are missiles. Of course perhaps when they say "around 8 feet" they include 2ft either side. We don't know what level of measurement precision we are dealing with here, nor whether they are referring to the inner or outer diameter of the ring. Basically we need more information before we can speculate any more accurately.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday January 08, @04:39PM
I thought about that, but they usually don't orbit for "a long time" being boosters. If there was a launch 15 minutes before impact I missed the news, so its probably not a mere 1st stage booster...
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday January 08, @04:32PM
For comparison, the first version of the Minuteman missile that is the only (land-based) delivery system for US nukes is 63 years old. First entered service in 1962 (damn, missed "62 years old, from '62" by 8 days).
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 5, Interesting) by HeadlineEditor on Wednesday January 08, @01:24PM (2 children)
Kenya has a space agency!
(Score: 5, Informative) by Unixnut on Wednesday January 08, @02:19PM
It was a surprise to me too but having read a bit more into it, it seems most countries have a space agency, even if they never lofted anything larger than a firework into the sky.
Generally these space agencies exist to centralise resources and contacts for international projects (e.g. you have astronomers in a small country with no space travel ability who want to collaborate on a space telescope, then your local space agency would contact NASA/ESA/ROSCOSMOS/etc... to see if collaboration is possible and generally handle the paperwork and organisation), and they also deal with things like space debris as we see here, along with monitoring/tracking meteors/comets and other such space based objects.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday January 08, @02:35PM
Nope, false alarm, the acronym is already taken [www.kerbalspace.agency].
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday January 08, @02:39PM
Kenya stopped reporting on it. In addition, the ring has vanished, accompanied by the appearance of new electromagnetic distortions in the area. When queried about it, they said "We know nothing about the vibra-- the debris. [wikipedia.org]"
(Score: 3, Touché) by drussell on Wednesday January 08, @02:44PM
Well, since it didn't actually squish anyone, I suppose it no longer poses a threat. 🙄
You mean like actually smooshy-smashing into the ground, trying to squish people kind of "uncomfortably close?" 🙄
(Score: 3, Funny) by Username on Wednesday January 08, @06:01PM (2 children)
>took the hefty ring into custody for further investigation
Do you think they handcuffed, and questioned the ring? Probably one tough nut to crack.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Wednesday January 08, @06:33PM (1 child)
Not if they use this $5 wrench.
The age of men is over. The time of the Orc has come.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 09, @01:28PM
I feel sorry for the wrench this time.