Since humans began launching rockets into space, space debris has returned to Earth in many unexpected locations.
Since the Earth’s surface is largely sea and uninhabited land, the likelihood of space debris falling into people’s homes is very small from a statistical perspective. But this is not the case, Washington Post said May 9.
People in Brazil are examining the debris believed to have belonged to a European spacecraft in 2014. Photo: Getty. Sea of Japan (also known as East Sea) The phenomenon of debris falling from space falling to the ground and causing damage was first recorded in 1969. That year, Japanese diplomats informed the United Nations of an unknown object from the falling space. Down and collide with Japanese cargo ships moving off Siberia (Russia). The collision caused serious injuries to 5 crew members. Shortly after, Soviet ships appeared at that time looking for debris. Japanese officials said the debris was identified by experts as part of the Soviet spacecraft. However, this information was initially kept private by Tokyo because it did not want to create conflicts with Moscow, according to the report AP . State of the Northwest Territories, Canada The danger of an object from space became apparent in 1978, when Cosmos 954, a satellite powered by the atomic energy of the Soviet Union, fell to Earth. The incident caused radioactive debris to spread throughout the Northwest Territories, Alberta, and Canada’s Saskatchewan province. After the incident, the Canadian government organized a large-scale “Morning Light Campaign” to search for tiny pieces of radioactive material falling on the arctic tundra. The cost for this campaign is nearly 14 million CAD (equivalent to 11.5 million USD). 
A fragment of satellite Cosmos 954. Photo: United States Department of Energy. Canada demanded that the Soviet Union compensate at the time for CAD 6 million ($ 5 million), but Moscow ended up paying only half of that amount. State of West Australia, Australia In 1979, Skylab – the first space station of the US Aerospace Agency (NASA) – crumbled while returning to Earth’s atmosphere. The incident caused many debris to fall throughout the farm town of Esperance in West Australia, Australia. 
The Skylab space station was photographed by the last crewman before falling apart on July 11, 1979. Photo: NASA. “It’s the best fireworks display you’ll ever see,” described Brendan Freeman, a retired farmer. ABC . The debris did not cause great damage, but for fun, the town authorities Esperance wrote a $ 400 fine letter to NASA for littering. NASA did not pay the fines, possibly out of fear of setting a negative precedent. By 2009, a DJ in the city of Barstow, California (USA) called to raise funds and bring fines to pay the town of Esperance. Lakeport, California, USA An early weekend in 1987, a retired aircraft mechanic living in a town near Mendocino National Forest, in northern California, heard gun-like noises outside the bedroom window. After searching, he discovered a scorched metal piece longer than 2 meters in the alley next to the house. Analysts at the US Air Force determined this object was most likely a piece of debris falling from a Soviet missile. This missile has previously been seen flying across the sky while being burned and dropped to Earth. “It’s interesting because things like that don’t happen around here very often,” said Maggie Pickle, the mechanic’s neighbor. AP . Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA 
Lottie Williams held up a piece of debris that fell on her shoulder from a US Delta II rocket in 1997. Photo: Tulsa World. One morning in 1997, Lottie Williams was walking with friends in Tulsa city park when he saw something like a comet across the sky. The object fell on Mrs. Williams’ shoulder, but the force of the impact was very light, almost insensitive. The object identified by the scientists was most likely a piece of the US Delta II rocket. Fragments are kept by Mrs. Williams as a souvenir. “I must be very lucky for the debris to be so light. It was one of the strangest things that ever happened to me, ”Mrs. Williams told NPR in the interview many years later. Eastern region of Texas and Louisiana, USA In 2003, the American space shuttle Columbia collapsed while returning to the atmosphere, killing seven astronauts on board. Where the wreckage of the space shuttle hit the ground, temporary memorials were built for the crew. Rural residents along the Texas-Louisiana border reported seeing debris from the ship fell into a water storage tank or through the roof of a dental office. Someone even tried to sell a piece of fragment on an eBay e-commerce site for $ 10,000. Finally, 84,000 pieces of debris from the ship in distress were collected after extensive searches in swamps, forests, and grasslands. These debris were used to rebuild the ship and identify the cause of the disaster. Ivory Coast In May 2020, another Chinese 5B Truong Chinh missile also crashed on Earth. The missile was initially thought to have crashed into the Pacific Ocean, but some people reported hearing ultrasonic explosions and seeing metal debris falling from the sky. This shows that some parts of the Truong Chinh 5B missile fell in the village of Mahounou, on the Ivory Coast. 
China’s Truong Chinh 5B missile launch in late April in Hainan province. Photo: Getty. However, there were no reports of human casualties following the incident. The discovery of tube fragments longer than 12 m also seems to help this area get more attention. Grant County, Washington State, USA The most recent cosmic waste incident happened just over a month ago, when a private aerospace company SpaceX rocket exploded over the Pacific Northwest. The explosion created a “light show,” which caused some at first to mistake it for a meteor shower, according to the report The Verge . A piece of equipment from the missile crashed on a farm in Washington state, leaving a mark more than 12 cm deep on the ground, The Verge reporting. A similar object was also discovered by fishermen off the coast of Oregon a few days later, but authorities have not confirmed whether this is debris from the SpaceX missile or not.
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