The Kings County Sheriff's Office identified the space debris roughly a week after it made its landing onto a California ranch.
(Kings County Sheriff's Office)
Posted on 10/19/2018 12:10:35 PM PDT by ETL
California residents were stunned to watch a fireball of space junk shoot across the sky and fall onto a nearby ranch last week. Videos of the bizarre sight quickly spread across social media — with many wondering what the debris was and where exactly it came from.
The owner of the ranch near Hanford spotted the big chunk of metal in his walnut orchard on Oct. 13 and alerted local authorities. ..."
After nearly a week of searching for clues, officials finally got an answer.
The Vandenberg Air Force Base told Kings County Sheriff's deputies the object was most likely a fuel tank that detached from a communications satellite owned by Iridium, a satellite communications company. The company confirmed to officials the object was, in fact, from one of their satellites that launched into space in the late 1990s and slowly re-entered Earth's atmosphere, the sheriff's office said in a statement to Fox News.
"The purpose of this particular tank was to store fuel used to change the orbit of the satellite in space," the Kings County Sheriff's Office said.
Iridium said the tank needs to be examined before they can officially confirm it belongs to the decades-old satellite.
“We need to see it. We may never be 100 percent certain," spokesman Jordan Hassin told the Fresno Bee, adding it has several satellites in low-Earth orbit.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Well, that’ll make an awfully interesting piece of lawn art.
Don’t touch it. Rocket fuel is nasty stuff.
Worse than moose bites.
Reminds me of Joe Dirt.
Looks like something some bum would be hauling around.
It’s a Qrlxian probe!
They always send those out before they attack!
Prepare now!
Buy lots of Brillo Pads and radishes! Those are the only things that scare them!
It is amazing that something that “thin” did not get vaporized during re-entry. Could be its shape and mass slowed it down some, but it is strange.
From the headline I thought they meant Kamala Harris.
Yeah, but not as gross. :)
We have a patch that flew in space on a shuttle mission, It came with a NASA certificate of authenticity. I wonder if he can get one for this?
That’s Bobba Fett’s helmet.
Radishes? They apparently haven’t encountered lutefisk yet.
Looks my old Weber. And all the stuff I bbqd on it. Burnt to a crisp.
I knew this thread was gonna he funny.
That’s it!
Our secret weapon!
They’ll be marching through Manhattan and we hit them with the lutefisk!
Maybe a little melted butter, too.
I think these things were filled with hydrogen peroxide.
They would release jets of gas to alter the positioning of the satellite. It was not really a rocket burn.
Looks like a giant cheese ball wrapper.
Puny Earthlings!
Ignore this!
It is a garbage pail.
Return to your meaningless existence.
Get rid of your Brillo Pads and radishes!
That is all.
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