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"Space ball" drops on Namibia
AFP ^ | Thu, Dec 22, 2011 | Staff

Posted on 12/23/2011 12:39:17 PM PST by Red Badger

A large metallic ball fell out of the sky on a remote grassland in Namibia, prompting baffled authorities to contact NASA and the European space agency.

The hollow ball with a circumference of 1.1 metres (43 inches) was found near a village in the north of the country some 750 kilometres (480 miles) from the capital Windhoek, according to police forensics director Paul Ludik.

Locals had heard several small explosions a few days beforehand, he said.

With a diameter of 35 centimetres (14 inches), the ball has a rough surface and appears to consist of "two halves welded together".

It was made of a "metal alloy known to man" and weighed six kilogrammes (13 pounds), said Ludik.

It was found 18 metres from its landing spot, a hole 33 centimetres deep and 3.8 meters wide.

Several such balls have dropped in southern Africa, Australia and Latin America in the past twenty years, authorities found in an Internet search.

The sphere was discovered mid-November, but authorities first did tests before announcing the find.

Police deputy inspector general Vilho Hifindaka concluded the sphere did not pose any danger.

"It is not an explosive device, but rather hollow, but we had to investigate all this first," he said.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Unclassified
KEYWORDS: metalball; metallicball; namibia
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To: Red Badger

It’s a hydrazine tank from a satellite. It fuels maneuvering thrusters.

It is insulated on the outside, and empty on the inside. So, it survives initial reentry, and is so light that it literally floats down.


21 posted on 12/23/2011 1:19:24 PM PST by justlurking (The only remedy for a bad guy with a gun is a good WOMAN (Sgt. Kimberly Munley) with a gun)
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To: Red Badger

Whatever they do, don’t cut it open!


22 posted on 12/23/2011 1:22:55 PM PST by Hot Tabasco (All I want for Christmas is a nickle bag of Myrrh and a pipe.........)
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To: Red Badger

Obama’s orbital birth certificate container?


23 posted on 12/23/2011 1:24:47 PM PST by DTogo (High time to bring back the Sons of Liberty !!)
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To: Repeal The 17th
Your image is outdated... I have the update:

24 posted on 12/23/2011 1:24:53 PM PST by BigEdLB (Now there ARE 1,000,000 regrets - but it may be too late.)
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To: Bender2

You’re a funny guy.


25 posted on 12/23/2011 1:30:15 PM PST by stevio (God, guns, guts.)
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To: RichInOC

Maybe ‘big-bootie Moochell’ laid an egg.......


26 posted on 12/23/2011 1:33:38 PM PST by arrdon
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To: SWAMPSNIPER

He’s looking for his Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.

Who’d have ever thought it’d turn up in Namibia?


27 posted on 12/23/2011 1:40:56 PM PST by AnAmericanAbroad (It's all bread and circuses for the future prey of the Morlocks.)
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To: Repeal The 17th

Commence ‘Operation Vacu-Suck’!


28 posted on 12/23/2011 1:43:55 PM PST by dfwgator
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"Space. Wanna go to space. Can't wait. Space."
29 posted on 12/23/2011 1:44:58 PM PST by RandallFlagg (Look for the union label, then buy elsewhere.)
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To: SWAMPSNIPER; All
And here's the ultimate tribute to Chuck Jones: Mars Spirit Rover launch patch.
30 posted on 12/23/2011 1:44:58 PM PST by AnAmericanAbroad (It's all bread and circuses for the future prey of the Morlocks.)
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To: SWAMPSNIPER

"Where's the Kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth-Shattering Kaboom!"

31 posted on 12/23/2011 1:45:56 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: Repeal The 17th

May the Schwartz be with you!


32 posted on 12/23/2011 1:46:51 PM PST by mykroar (I believe in the simplistic notion that people who have wealth are entitled to keep it.)
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To: Red Badger

33 posted on 12/23/2011 2:09:43 PM PST by Roscoe Karns
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To: Red Badger

it is part of the satellite propulsion systems to keep them in orbit.


34 posted on 12/23/2011 2:14:47 PM PST by EBH (God Humbles Nations, Leaders, and Peoples before He uses them for His Purpose)
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To: stevio; Allegra; big'ol_freeper; Lil'freeper; TrueKnightGalahad; blackie; Cincinatus' Wife; ...
Re: You’re a funny guy.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwww shucks, stevio... Surely I just call'em as I see'em--

Well, I, for one, do not find it funny... you calling me 'Shirley' all the time!

Not this 'Bender is funny' crap... again?

He's funny, Worf! Cause two redshirts... to die laughing!

Bender not funny! Me at Lambeau rooting for Packers... now, that is funny!

I don't always laugh, but when I do... it is at Bender's antics.

I work for Mel Brooks... and we are here to knock the snot out of you and that other 'funny' SOB named Bender!

President Ford, bless his soul, always... found Bender terribly hilarious.

Bender funny? Incon... ceivable!

This just in, Bender is funny and according to an unnamed German source, "Very ... Interesting!"

And in sport, the Deadskins' 2011 Season... Now that is laugh out loud funny!

Well, I never said, there was not... mixed reaction to my ways and means--

Whoa! Let's go to another planet. Here they think... a cartoon robot is funny!

35 posted on 12/23/2011 2:15:33 PM PST by Bender2 ("I've got a twisted sense of humor, and everything amuses me." RAH Beyond this Horizon)
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To: RichInOC
The Gods Must Have Metal Balls.

Or . . . they might belong to the GOP, who haven't exhibited that they have any in years.

36 posted on 12/23/2011 2:21:52 PM PST by Oatka (This is the USA, assimilate or evaporate.)
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To: EBH
it is part of the satellite propulsion systems to keep them in orbit.

It didn't work.............

37 posted on 12/23/2011 2:29:28 PM PST by Red Badger (Every child should have a meadow to play in..............)
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To: justlurking

104 Litre Hydrazine Propellant Tank

http://cs.astrium.eads.net/sp/spacecraft-propulsion/propellant-tanks/104-litre-hydrazine-propellant-tank.html


38 posted on 12/23/2011 2:47:52 PM PST by Robe (Rome did not create a great empire by talking, they did it by killing all those who opposed them)
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To: justlurking

104 Litre Hydrazine Propellant Tank

http://cs.astrium.eads.net/sp/spacecraft-propulsion/propellant-tanks/104-litre-hydrazine-propellant-tank.html


39 posted on 12/23/2011 2:48:14 PM PST by Robe (Rome did not create a great empire by talking, they did it by killing all those who opposed them)
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To: arrdon

Maybe ‘big-bootie Moochell’ laid an egg.....

It's a rare Butt-o-saurus egg.


40 posted on 12/23/2011 2:49:56 PM PST by Iron Munro ("Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight he'll just kill you." John Steinbeck)
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