Crashed metal ring in Kenya: origin of space debris still a mystery
Shortly before the turn of the year, a 500-kilogram metal ring crashed in Kenya, apparently from outer space. It is still unclear what it is.
(Image: Dotted Yeti/Shutterstock.com)
Almost two weeks after a piece of space debris weighing 500 kilograms crashed in southern Kenya, it is apparently still not clear where the object came from. This is according to a statement from the Kenya Space Agency (KSA) last weekend, statements from the space company Arianespace and analyses by several space experts. The possibility that the object is not space debris at all is apparently not entirely ruled out. This is the opinion of Dutchman Marco Langbroek, for example, who has been analyzing satellite orbits for years. Kenya's space agency itself has recently publicly denied false information that India will pay for any damage caused.
Arianespace does not recognize object
As Langbroek explains in a blog post, there are only two possible objects based on the orbit data, the time of the crash and the crash site. One is the part of a European Ariane rocket launched in 2008. Most of the characteristics match this, but the object found would probably be far too heavy. In addition, a spokesperson for the manufacturer Arianespace assured the French newspaper Le Parisien that engineers had come to the conclusion from the photos that "this part does not belong to a part of a European launcher operated by Arianespace". According to ArianeGroup, the diameter also does not fit.
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The Dutch expert has identified the booster of an Atlas rocket launched in 2004 as the second candidate, but this would not fit so well for several reasons. In addition, this object was observed in orbit after the crash. US space expert Jonathan McDowell, on the other hand, is not quite so skeptical. In his own blog entry, he points out that the observation data could be incorrect and that part of this piece of space debris could have crashed earlier, which could then match the crash site. But here, too, the mass of the object is too small for the mass of the crashed ring.
McDowell excludes five other possible candidates in his text, most of which were objects associated with the launch of Starlink satellites. This means that an answer to the question of origin can probably only come from Kenya itself, where the object is currently being investigated. The space agency there had assured that the object posed no "immediate threat to safety" and was being analyzed. According to the Kenya Space Agency, it was an isolated incident that was being investigated under the rules of international agreements. On its Facebook account, it had recently countered false reports in connection with the seized object.
(mho)
