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The farmer suspected the debris might have come from the rocket and left a message at the sheriff’s office over the weekend.
In this image taken from video provided by Roman Puzhlyakov, debris from a SpaceX rocket lights up the sky behind the clouds over Vancouver. (Roman Puzhlyakov via AP)
Ephrata, Washington: A chunk of flaming rocket debris seen streaking across the Pacific Northwest sky last week crashed onto a farm in eastern Washington state, authorities said.
After the March 25 event, a farmer discovered a nearly intact piece of rocket in a private field, The Tri-City Herald reported.
The approximately 5-foot (1.5-meter) compound-wrapped pressure vessel used to store helium left a nearly 4-inch (10.16-centimeter) dent in the ground, Grant County Sheriff’s spokesman Kyle Foreman said. . No one was injured, he said.
The National Weather Service in Seattle has said that the bright objects in the sky widely reported on March 25 were remnants of the second stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that left comet-like trails as they burned upon re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. Land.
The farmer, who authorities said did not want to be identified, suspected the debris could have come from the rocket and left a message with the sheriff’s office over the weekend, Foreman said. Agents responded Monday and contacted SpaceX officials. SpaceX confirmed it was part of the rocket and has since recovered it, Foreman said.
The Falcon 9 is a reusable two-stage rocket designed by SpaceX to transport people and payloads to Earth’s orbit and beyond, according to the SpaceX website. It says there have been 111 launches and 71 landings.
