Adam Burucki had a very peculiar Wednesday morning. Upon reaching the warehouse of his quaint Polish village of Komorniki, he finds a large number of burnt rocket fragments that have crashed on his property.
He called the police in the nearby city of Poznan due to the shock of his discovery BBC Report.
According to news media reports, police worked with the Polish Space Agency, known as Polsa, and then determined that the 3 x 5-foot object was from the Falcon 9 rocket made by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX. Police also said similar debris were found near the village of Wiry, about 2.5 miles from Komoniki.
The rocket was launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County on February 1 and brought 22 asterisk satellites into orbit. Polsa’s statement. The Falcon 9 rocket is designed to transport people and cargo into space and then safely re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
However, Polsa said that at 4:46 a.m. local time, the Rockets’ second phase underwent an uncontrolled re-entry in Poland. During this time, the rockets were burning because fireballs could be seen in the sky across the country. Polish news agency and videos shared on social media.
The second phase is the upper part of the rocket, responsible for successfully transporting items to orbit in the first phase and successfully pushing the rocket into the upper atmosphere of the Earth and breaking itself off.
In the Falcon 9 Rockets, the first stage is about 2 minutes and 30 seconds apart from the second stage. The first phase design is reusable, while the second phase is consuming and can be replaced after each task.
Harvard astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell online Space Report The fragments found on Burucki’s property were found from the second phase, which were composite covering pressure vessels. This is a high-strength container for storing helium gas, which is crucial for pressurizing the rocket’s propellant tank and ensuring fuel flow to the engine.
Edward Wright, a professor of astronomy at UCLA, told the Times that engine or control failures likely prevented the second phase from re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere in a controlled manner and making routine landings in the Pacific Ocean . He said most rockets burn in the intense heat caused by friction through the atmosphere at 18,000 mph.
McDowell noted that this is the fourth most recent issue with SpaceX Falcon.
“We have been lucky so far that no one has been hurt, but the more we put into Earth’s orbit, the more we have the greater our luck.”
In July, the Falcon 9 Phase 2 experienced Oxygen leakageleading to engine problems and premature release of 20 satellites. August, the first phase of the Rockets’ reusable Pour into the ocean During a failure on a regular landing ship. Then in September’s NASA astronaut rescue mission, the second phase of the Falcon 9 experienced an abnormal dehydration burn, which made it Landing outside the expected area.
The Falcon 9 has the largest record of launch and reusing in U.S. history. It has been landed 391 times since its launch in 2010. SpaceX. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment about fragments found in Poland.
