An apparent rocket part falls in Kenya
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.
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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.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
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.