Space Junk

[Flyaway]

The Australian Space Agency have spoken out after a strange discovery, burning in the middle of a dirt road in the desert, prompting a multi-agency investigation.

Emergency services were called to the scene at 2pm on Saturday by workers at a mine site who found the "burning object" near a remote access road near Newman, a small town in Western Australia's Pilbara, one of Australia's most remote regions.

Police said the burning item is thought to have come from space, explaining it is "consistent with known space re-entry debris".

…

According to one of Australia's leading space archaeologists, the hunk of metal could be part of a Chinese rocket that launched in September.


“It seems to be the fourth stage of a Jielong rocket,” Alice Gorman, a Flinders University associate professor and author of Dr SpaceJunk vs the Universe, told The Guardian.

“There was one launched in late September. If it is the one from the 25th, that means it’s been orbiting the Earth for a bit and then came out of the blue."

https://au.news.yahoo.com/australia...ets-to-earth-and-crashes-in-wa-205504999.html

 

[Archibald]

Also this - scary. https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/...st-struck-a-united-airlines-flight-over-utah/
Not yet identified, might not be a space debris.

In other news, SpaceX has just launched the 10,000th Starlink.

 

[NMaude]

Also this - scary. https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/...st-struck-a-united-airlines-flight-over-utah/
Not yet identified, might not be a space debris.

Scott Manley has just put out a video about this:

On October 16th at about 6:40am mountain time a Boeing 737 experienced dramatic damage to a cockpit window which forced an emergency landing in Salt Lake City. Some sources claim the pilot saw an object and thought it was space debris. Most news sites are reporting this as fact.

I on the other hand see that this is 3rd hand information, and think there are other possibilities that may be more likely. I'm hoping the NTSB will come up with more evidence after examining the broken window.

This is the Aviation Safety network page on the incident
https://asn.flightsafety.org/wikibase...

 

[Josh_TN]

Anything coming from space would have had enough velocity to penetrate, IMO.

 

[publiusr]

Perhaps it came in at an angle, sloughing off enough speed such that it fell near terminal velocity at the last, like a hailstone.

 

[Flyaway]

Jonathan McDowell
@planet4589
I did a brief write-up on known space debris reentries on Oct 16, none of which match the UA1093 airliner incident

https://planet4589.org/space/misc/ua1093.html

https://twitter.com/x/status/1980305731288182986

View: https://x.com/planet4589/status/1980305731288182986

Jonathan McDowell
@planet4589
OK, I remain skeptical, but did manage to come up with a rough scenario in which the UA1093 incident could be space debris. The Starlink 10-52 mission reached a 135 x 260 km parking orbit at 0935 UTC, and then circularized with a burn at 1021 UTC. (1/2)
10:12 AM · Oct 20, 2025
·

https://twitter.com/x/status/1980321289182294411

View: https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1980321289182294411

If a piece came off in the parking orbit and then survived first perigee at ~1110 UTC, could have reentered roughly over Utah at the right time, within a few min and a few hundred km. An unlikely scenario, but only one I can see which could provide a space debris explanation

https://twitter.com/x/status/1980321544346997021

View: https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1980321544346997021

 

[Flyaway]

Scott Manley
@DJSnM
If this position and time are right it could be a candidate balloon along the flight path. The last time is about 8 minutes before UAL 1093 got there.

Mark Jessop - @[email protected]
@vk5qi
There was a WindBorne systems balloon right around that area, at the right altitude, at the time. It stopped reporting right at 12:36Z. Those are about 1kg in mass. Last position was 38.5314, -109.416, at 10953m altitude.
2:32 PM · Oct 20, 2025

https://twitter.com/x/status/1980423140602966249

View: https://x.com/DJSnM/status/1980423140602966249

https://twitter.com/x/status/1980386581497409891

View: https://x.com/vk5qi/status/1980386581497409891

View: https://youtu.be/YZzbS30xdjM?si=glQy2JQfeddCFjo_

 

[Flyaway]

Scott Manley
@DJSnM
Here's what the operational part of the
@WindBorneWx
weather balloon looks like - they use sand as ballast. And here's the plane, I now understand why the paint on the window frame looks like it's been sand blasted.

It does look like WindBorne are doing all the right things, but I'm guessing the controllers just didn't get the location information they were sharing?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1980433951551533203

View: https://twitter.com/DJSnM/status/1980433951551533203

 

[Flyaway]

Their response is extremely poor. Especially is it’s possible they could have downed that airliner costing hundreds of lives in the process.

It wasn’t space debris that struck a United Airlines plane—it was a weather balloon
WindBorne says its balloons are compliant with all applicable airspace regulations.

 

[Michel Van]

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/...-in-flight-it-was-probably-a-weather-balloon/

 

[Flyaway]

Program: Can we stop space from filling up with junk?

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...ngren-traffic-management-satellites/106011330

 

[publiusr]

Detection
https://phys.org/news/2025-12-fingerprints-dead-satellites.html

 

[Flyaway]

https://www.space.com/space-explora...ex-starlink-satellite-photographed-from-orbit

 

[Flyaway]

Draco: atmospheric reentry from the inside:

View: https://youtu.be/9xKCxshPcvM

 

[NMaude]

Anton Petrov has just put out a video concerning the increased risk of the Kessler Syndrome from the new LEO satellite mega-constellations:

Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about the Kessler syndrome and a new unnerving study about megaconstellations
Links:
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.09643
#satellite #megaconstellation #science
Other links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vcf6a1X6T_4
• Space Junk Is Now Landing On People's Home...

• ISS Canadarm Hit by Space Debris - Are We ...

• Insane Amount of Space Debris and The 2009... • Most Intense Solar Storm in Decades Shrunk... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuxXsagVZ_s


0:00 Space trash and Kessler syndrome
1:55 Megaconstellations and 100,000 maneuvers
3:55 Uncontrollable events and CRASH metric - 2.8 days!
6:20 How control could be lost
8:55 CRASH clock and the classical Kessler syndrome
9:50 Anti satellite weapons
10:25 New policies may not be enough
11:20 Conclusions and implications

 

[Flyaway]

A Russian satellite once used to inspect other spacecraft appears to have disintegrated in a graveyard orbit high above the Earth, according to ground-based imagery.

The Luch/Olymp satellite, launched in 2014, is one of two secretive military Russian satellites that have been used to stalk spacecraft from the US and others in the geostationary belt (GEO), around 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers) above the equator. Luch/Olymp (NORAD catalog number 40258) had recently been decommissioned and sent into a graveyard orbit a few hundred miles above GEO in October 2025.

Now, however, optical ground-based imagery from Swiss space situational awareness company s2A systems shows what appears to be a fragmentation event as the satellite disintegrates and begins to tumble. Additional objects have been spotted around the satellite following the fragmentation event at 06:09 GMT on Jan. 30, according to a post on social media platform X.

…

Astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell told Space.com that the fragmentation of Luch/Olymp may have been caused by an external debris impact, which may be a worrying event.

McDowell says the disintegration may possibly be due to a debris hit, since internal energy sources, such as fuel and batteries, should have been vented when it was retired.

While a failure to properly passivate the spacecraft could not be ruled out, McDowell notes that a possible debris impact could suggest that the space debris environment in GEO, and the graveyard orbit above it, is worse than previously believed.

https://www.space.com/space-explora...-break-apart-in-orbit-raising-debris-concerns

 

[Flyaway]

Background on ejected battery packs.

It all started in 2021 when astronauts replaced the ISS's nickel hydride batteries with lithium-ion batteries. It was part of a power system upgrade, and the expired batteries added up to about 2,630 kg (5,800 lbs.) On March 8th, 2021, ground controllers used the ISS's robotic arm to release a pallet full of the expired batteries into space, where orbital decay would eventually send them plummeting into Earth's atmosphere.

It was the most massive debris release from the ISS. According to calculations, it should have burned up when it entered the atmosphere on March 8th, 2024. But it didn't.

Alejandro Otero owns a home in Naples, Florida. He wasn't home on March 8th when there was a loud crash as something smashed into his roof. But his son was. "It was a tremendous sound. It almost hit my son," Otero told CNN affiliate WINK News in March. "He was two rooms over and heard it all."

"Something ripped through the house and then made a big hole in the floor and on the ceiling," Otero explained. "I'm super grateful that nobody got hurt."

 

[NMaude]

I remember reading about that in a thread in the rocketry Forum board in 2024.

 

[Flyaway]

A stray SpaceX rocket stage could slam into the moon this August, amateur astronomer says

"It doesn't present any danger to anyone, though it does highlight a certain carelessness about how leftover space hardware is disposed of."

 

[Foo Fighter]

Space X? Standard OP. WHO cares?

Perhaps collect it and drop it on their heads instead of on the moon, with a big bill not Gates.

 

[Flyaway]

https://www.projectpluto.com/25010d.htm

The original source of the story.

 

[Flyaway]

Australia probes mystery space balls that washed up on beach https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1jyydr7jnjo

 

[Flyaway]

Australia space agency has found 'likely source' of mystery space balls https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1jyydr7jnjo

The Australian Space Agency (ASA) says it has "identified the likely source" of mysterious large balls that had washed up on a beach in northern Queensland this weekend.

 

[Josh_TN]

Australia probes mystery space balls that washed up on beach https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1jyydr7jnjo

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kD516OENN7s&ra=m&t=33

 

[Flyaway]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cr3w09314x54t

• Part of a SpaceX rocket hurtling towards the Moon is thought to have made impact
• The Falcon 9 rocket was launched last year - its 4,000kg upper stage (section) was shed in space, as planned, but went on to be in an accidental collision course with the lunar surface
• The crash, which was due around 07:35 BST, will be confirmed by images from specialist telescopes - our science correspondent explains why this can take time
• One telescope operator, in Chile, says he detected changes in light around the expected time of the collision. It's an "encouraging preliminary result", Rodrigo Palominos says
• Nasa spokesperson Jimi Russell says the US space agency wants to "collect lunar data from the event and refine techniques for tracking objects in space"
• Meanwhile, astronomer Matt Bothwell warns about the dangers of space debris - human-made objects in orbit - telling the BBC: "It could feasibly be, within a few decades, hard to get past Earth's orbit because space is so crowded"

 

[FighterJock]

Saw that on BBC Breakfast, I wonder how much dust and debris were thrown up into space and could be detected on Earth?

 

[Flyaway]

SpaceX rocket's impact crater on the moon spied by Korean lunar orbiter (photos)

The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, known as Danuri, has captured imagery of the crater blasted out by the Falcon 9upper stage that slammed into the moon early on Wednesday morning (Aug. 5).


"Danuri began observations about 30 minutes before the collision and, through orbit control, passed over the impact site multiple times, conducting a total of 8 imaging sessions," officials with the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) said via X this morning (Aug. 6). "Through this observation, changes in the terrain around the impact site and traces of ejecta spread were confirmed."