A cattle farmer in Australia's remote northern outback said he
had found a giant ball of twisted metal, which he believes is space
junk from a rocket used to launch communications satellites.
Farmer James Stirton found the odd-shaped ball last year on on his
40,000 hectare property, about 800 kilometres west of the northern
Queensland state capital of Brisbane.
But Stirton only started inquiring into what the ball of metal
really was, and where it had come from, in the past week.
"I was riding out to check some cattle, and I came around the
corner and there it was in a paddock," Stirton said.
"I know a lot of about sheep and cattle but I don't know much about
satellites. But I would say it is a fuel cell off some stage of a
rocket."
He said the object was hollow, and covered in a carbon-fibre
material. He has contacted some US-based aerospace companies to try
to find out what the object really is.
Sydney's Powerhouse Museum said it was not uncommon for people to
find spacejunk in remote areas of Australia.
In 1979, large parts of the Skylab space station fell to earth near
a tiny outback town in Australia's west.
A local council sent NASA a ticket for littering and then then United States President Jimmy Carter rang a local motel to apologise.
