Big Hunk of Metal—Possibly From a Chinese Rocket—Falls Out of the Sky

[Buster's Uncle]

Big Hunk of Metal—Possibly From a Chinese Rocket—Falls Out of the Sky
Popular Mechanics
Jay Bennett  November 14, 2016






A 15-foot-long, 4-foot-diameter metal cylinder fell out of the sky in northern Myanmar yesterday, shaking the ground when it crashed. "Every local thought it was the explosion of heavy artillery," local Ko Maung Myo told Myanmar Times. "I walked over to it and saw it was part of an engine."

The cylinder struck in a jade mine and then bounced about 150 feet away before coming to a rest. A smaller cylindrical object, some 4.6 inches in length, crashed through the roof of a nearby home. No injuries have been reported from either incident.

"I think it was an engine because I found a diode and many copper wires at the tail of the body," said Myo, who went on to say that there was an acrid smell around the cylinder, as though electronics were burning.

The China National Space Administration, however, has a history of not being so cautious when it comes to conducting launches. Last year, part of a rocket engine crashed through a man's roof and into his living room in China's northeastern province of Shanxi. China also recently confirmed that its Tiangong-1 space station is falling back to Earth and is expected to impact in late 2017.

China has been aggressively expanding their space program of late. A second Chinese space station was launched in September, and the country has plans to send a rover to Mars in 2020 and put a person on the moon by 2036.

Source: Myanmar Times via Gizmodo


https://www.yahoo.com/news/big-hunk-metal-possibly-chinese-173819683.html