Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Jacob Phillips

Pieces of debris 'from Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket' fall through atmosphere in Poland

One of several unidentified objects being investigated by Poland's space agency POLSA - (via REUTERS)

A mysterious tank thought to be from a Space X rocket crash landed into a man’s lawn in Poland, the country’s space agency said.

A strange object crashed into Adam Borucki’s lawn at a warehouse in Komorniki, Poland, reports say.

The debris was about 1.5m by 1m wide and thought to be from a Space X rocket launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on February 1, The Independent reported.

Poland's space agency POLSA is looking into whether the unidentified object found near the western Polish city of Poznan on Wednesday is debris from Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, a spokesperson said.

The object, resembling a container, appeared on Wednesday morning on the premises of a company in Komorniki, near Poznan, according to Polish police.

"We cannot rule out that the object found near Poznan comes from the Falcon 9 rocket, whose flight we monitored. Confirmation of this requires appropriate examination," said Agnieszka Gapys, press officer for POLSA.

One of several unidentified objects being investigated by Poland's space agency POLSA (Agencja Wyborcza.pl via REUTERS)

Later on Wednesday, a second "identical" container was found in the forest of Wiry village, police told Reuters. The two locations are approximately 30 km (19 miles) from each other.

"For now, the police are securing the second container found. When the activities related to the inspection of the first object are completed, we will perform similar activities in the forest," said Lukasz Paterski, press officer of the Poznan police.

POLSA said in a statement that the approximately four-tonne rocket it was monitoring on Wednesday morning was from the SpaceX Starlink Group mission, which launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on February 1.

"POLSA is in constant contact with the police," the agency said separately. "We already have photos of the objects that fell near Poznan. The POLSA Space Security Department will verify the object with SpaceX."

The Falcon 9 is a reusable, two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the transport of people and payloads into the Earth's orbit.

Poland has been on alert for possible spillover of weaponry from the war in neighbouring Ukraine, especially since two people were killed near the border in November 2022 by what Warsaw concluded was a misfired Ukrainian air defence missile.

Polish state news agency PAP reported on Wednesday morning that flashes could be seen in the sky in some parts of Poland.

The press officer of the Greater Poland State Fire Service, Martin Halasz, told PAP that at the request of the police, a chemical and ecological rescue group had been sent to the site to rule out the possibility that the found item posed any threat.

Last year a giant ring suspected to be part of a rocket crash also landed in a Kenyan village.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.