At around 2 pm local time (5 pm AEDT) yesterday, workers at a Pilbara mine site were taken aback by the sight of a mysterious burning object. They promptly contacted emergency services to report the unusual find.
After a thorough investigation, authorities confirmed that the carbon fiber material did not originate from any commercial aircraft.
Police described the item as resembling a “composite-overwrapped pressure vessel or rocket tank,” which aligns with components typically found in aerospace equipment.
In a statement, police noted, “The object remains under investigation, although its features suggest it may be space re-entry debris, based on known characteristics.”
To further analyze and identify the object’s nature and origin, engineers from the Australian Space Agency will conduct a detailed technical assessment.
It is common practice for space agencies to release debris into the atmosphere during operations.
“It is on purpose that this bit of rocket body has landed back, but it could just be the way that it’s been tumbling that this piece was able to survive,” Perth Observatory’s Matt Woods said.
The last time space junk landed in WA was just two years ago when an Indian rocket’s tank crashed down in Green Head.
Earlier this year, parts of a Mother’s Day meteor scattered over the outback.
“[The] great thing about WA is we’re the second-biggest state in the world so we’ve got a lot of land mass that this stuff can land on,” Woods said.
NASA was famously fined for littering when its defunct space station – Skylab – disintegrated over Esperance.Â
The Australian Space Agency is still investigating the source of yesterday’s discovery.
It says there’s no threat to public safety.
Only one person has been hit by falling space waste and it was only the size of a soft drink can.
