Villagers were shocked to see a 500kg ring of partially burnt metal fall from the sky in Kenya.
The space debris, spanning roughly two metres in diameter, landed with a loud bang in Mukuku, Makueni county, between the capital Nairobi and the coastal city of Mombasa.
No buildings were damaged and no one was injured, but it terrified villagerswho saw or heard it fall on December 30.
One woman told Tuko news website: ‘I was going about my day when we heard this loud bang that we could not decipher. The metallic object then fell and made another sound, frightening us.’
Another said: ‘I heard what I thought was an explosion when it landed here! Du! du! du! I asked, “Is the world ending today?”.
‘I was shocked because it was so sunny with no hint of rain. I hope our leaders will tell us what this object was and why it fell here.’
The Kenyan publication reported a third man as saying: ‘As a community, we are really worried. What if this fell in the homestead of one of us?
‘Are there companies up there in the sky that made this thing fall on us? We really need answers.’
Its origin is yet to be determined, but Kenya’s Space Agency believes it to be the separation ring of a launch rocket.
A statement says: ‘Such objects are usually designed to burn up as they re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere or to fall over unoccupied areas, such as the oceans.’
The agency said it is an ‘isolated case’, but an increase in space travel has caused a rise in space debris falling to earth.
With it, there are growing concerns about public safety.
Part of a Dragon capsule from Elon Musk’s SpaceX fell on an Australian sheep farm in 2022.
China has been criticised for allowing its giant Long March rockets to fall back to Earth after orbit.
And NASA was sued last year after a piece of falling metal tore through the home of a family in Naples, Florida, CBS reported.
Resident Alejandro Otero, who was away on holiday at the time, said: ‘I was shaking. I was completely in disbelief.
‘What are the chances of something landing on my house with such force to cause so much damage. I’m super grateful that nobody got hurt.’
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