Half-ton burning space junk debris crashes down in Kenyan village

A burning piece of space debris weighing 500kg plunged into Earth and landed in a rural Kenyan village.  

The scorching piece of metal was later identified to be the separation ring from a launch rocket that descended rapidly and unexpectedly onto the village of Mukuku in Makueni county on Monday. 

Kenya Space Agency officials rushed to the scene and retrieved the debris, which is now under the agency’s custody.  

There have been no reports of injuries.  

Major Aloyce Were of the Kenya Space Agency told local media the metallic object weighs around 500 kg. 

Major Were added that locals ‘should not be scared’, explaining that ‘it is a part of a space object which is in the form of a ring, a metallic ring, possibly from a rocket separation stage.’   

Authorities were still investigating the extent of the damage  to the village as well as the ring’s origin. 

Were added:  ‘We are to assess the impact to the area, identify whose space object it is so that we can use the existing legal mechanisms under international law as far as the outer space treaty is concerned.’ 

In a separate press release, the space agency said that ‘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. 

‘This is an isolated case, which the Agency will investigate and address’, it added. 

Footage shows the giant metal ring cordoned off by police tape as authorities investigate and villagers crowded around it and curiously watched on. 

One unnamed villager praised the Kenya Space Agency for its ‘very quick response’, adding that officials ‘have showed us as a community that there is no cause of alarm, we are safe’. 

It comes after mystery black objects falling from the sky during a lightning storm in Thailand left locals bewildered, with one couple believing the items were from outer space.