A large metallic ring suspected to be debris from space crashed in southern Kenya’s Mukuku village last December 2024, according to the statement of the country’s space agency. Kenyan officials said they were investigating fragments of metal, believed to be from a rocket, that crashed into the northern part of the country.
KSA officials rushed to the scene and, working alongside a multi-agency team and local authorities, secured the area and retrieved the debris.
 |
| Mysterious Metallic Object in Kenya. (Image credit: The Economic times News) |
Local residents said 'huge, red-hot object' fell from the sky into a Kenyan village on Monday (Dec.30, 2024) afternoon, prompting an immediate investigation by the national space agency.
The object has since been identified as a “fragment of a space object,” the Kenya Space Agency said in a statement Wednesday (Jan.1, 2025). The KSA describing it as apparent space junk measuring 2.5 meters (about 8 feet) wide and weighing 500 kg (about 1,100 pounds).
 |
| Statement from KSA official X account. (Image credit: https://x.com/SpaceAgencyKE/status/1874322755304173592) |
Space debris is usually designed to either burn up in Earth's atmosphere before reaching the ground or land in unpopulated areas, like the ocean. This doesn't always happen, though.
Preliminary assessments suggest it is a separation ring from a rocket, the agency said, noting that space debris more typically falls into the ocean or burns up before entering Earth’s atmosphere.
 |
| Image credit: Independent.co.uk |
“There are many pieces of debris in space and one cannot be 100 per cent certain which will fall where,” the agency said. “However, most debris burns up in the atmosphere, and incidents like this are extremely rare.”
It said the object was not a threat to public safety, and praised the villagers nearby who had swiftly alerted authorities.
Space observer Jonathan McDowell, who tracks rocket movements, said the Kenyan agency could be “mistaken” about the source of the debris.
He emphasised that it could not have come from a space shuttle’s rocket booster. “Totally impossible. The Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB) never reached orbit and have not been ‘in the sky’ since 2011,” the researcher from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said on social media.
Experts at the KSA are investigating the impact of the fallen metal ring on the area. The exact origin of the metal piece is also still being investigated.
 |
| Kenya official collected sample for further analysis. (Image credit: Business Insider) |
An early review by Inside Outer Space of the Aerospace Corporation’s Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies (CORDS) Reentry Database suggested a possible link to an incoming rocket body associated with an Atlas Centaur launch back in 2004.
The Atlas Centaur rocketed out of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Aug. 31, 2004 carrying a classified USA-179 satellite.
That rocket body leftover, tagged as object 28385, was predicted to reenter on Dec. 30, 2024 at 21:33 UTC ± 2 hours, with a flight path taking it over Africa.
However, reentry tracker McDowell said U.S. Space Force data showed the 28385 rocket stage reentered over Lake Baikal in Russia, not in Kenya
Until now, it's unclear whose rocket the ring might belong to. Officials said they had collected pieces from the impact site for further analysis to determine its origins.
References:
.png)
Please don't put your website link in Comment section. This is for discussion article related only. Thank you :)