An apparent rocket part falls in KenyaWhat appears to have been a rocket stage separation ring fell in Kenya on December 30, 2024, and local officials from Kenya’s space agency are attempting to confirm and identify the source.
The pictures of the ring show a lot of details, so it should not be hard to identify what rocket it came from, assuming the owner is willing to come forward. While most will do so, China might not.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
What appears to have been a rocket stage separation ring fell in Kenya on December 30, 2024, and local officials from Kenya’s space agency are attempting to confirm and identify the source.
The pictures of the ring show a lot of details, so it should not be hard to identify what rocket it came from, assuming the owner is willing to come forward. While most will do so, China might not.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Cue The Gods Must Be Crazy
Cue John Frum…..
I was not aware that there even was a Kenyan Space Agency.
Based on the photos in the linked article, the ring looks to be 6 – 8 feet in diameter. Probably a structural ring from the top or bottom of a rocket stage. Presumably, the rest of said stage burned up on re-entry or at least scattered any other surviving pieces elsewhere. No way, based solely on the photos, to estimate how long the thing was on-orbit before falling.
Just based on its apparent diameter, this bit of debris might be from an upper stage of an Indian Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) which has a diameter of 79 in. There are also upper stages of the European Vega and Vega-C launchers that have comparable diameters. The ring looks too small to have been part of any of India’s larger launch vehicles. The same is true for the PRC’s most commonly used launch vehicles. The PRC, though, now fields quite a bestiary of smaller, “commercial” rockets so the origin of the fallen ring might be one of those too.
Steve,
According to Wikipedia, the Kenya Space Agency is a bit less than eight years old. So it’s definitely not among the gray-bearded national space agencies.
Dick Eagleson: A search of BtB finds the story in 2018:
Kenya creates space agency
As a general rule, BtB is a more reliable source than Wikipedia.
It fell down, down, down, the burning ring of fire.
People on the scene; speculation rose higher
M. Murcek must have a very vast knowledge of the CLASSICS! My very first thought was “The Gods must be Crazy”! I found that movie to be hilarious and the subsequent TGMBC 2 was equally entertaining. I wonder, M. Murcek, if your knowledge extends to “IDIOCRACY”? I’ve watched it MANY times and can’t help but see the movie as a DOCUMENTARY on what life would be like in a World led by DEMOcrats!
“As a general rule, BtB is a more reliable source than Wikipedia.”
Trying to damn yourself with faint praise?
What is BtB?
Bill99: BtB is an abbreviation of this website’s full title, Behind the Black.
Most likely a jet engine part
https://www.istockphoto.com/pl/zdj%C4%99cie/glina-3d-render-silnika-turbowentylatorowego-izolowanego-na-bia%C5%82ym-tle-gm824116022-133434047
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=62161.0
These idiots have always been trying to to do Jesse Jackson style shakedowns
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogota_Declaration
https://spaceinafrica.com/