{"id":224864,"date":"2025-10-19T10:04:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T10:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/224864\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T10:04:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T10:04:12","slug":"newman-space-junk-burns-crash-lands-at-mine-site-in-was-pilbara-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/224864\/","title":{"rendered":"Newman: Space junk burns, crash-lands at mine site in WA\u2019s Pilbara region"},"content":{"rendered":"

A burning ball of space junk has been found at a mine site in WA\u2019s Pilbara region.<\/p>\n

Emergency services were alerted to the scene after mine site employees located a \u201cburning object\u201d near a remote access road in Newman \u2014 about 455km south of Port Hedland \u2014 about 2pm on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Police said initial assessments indicated the debris was made of carbon fibre, and could be a \u201ccomposite-overwrapped pressure vessel or rocket tank, consistent with aerospace components\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau concluded the object had not originated from a commercial aircraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe object remains under investigation, though its characteristics are consistent with known space re-entry debris,\u201d a police spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\"EmergencyCamera IconEmergency services rushed to the scene after it was reported and put out the fire. Credit: WA Police\/Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cFurther technical assessment will be undertaken by engineers from the Australian Space Agency to assist in identifying its nature and source.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe object has been secured, and there is no current threat to public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photographs of the debris show a black, dome-shaped object, with flames flickering out from the item\u2019s centre.<\/p>\n

\"TheCamera IconThe space debris was found on a remote access road. Credit: WA Police\/Supplied<\/p>\n

Police are continuing to work with the mine operator, Australian Space Agency, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services and other relevant stakeholders to investigate the origins of the object.<\/p>\n

The Australian Space Agency has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

It comes more than two years after space debris from a satellite launch vehicle was found on Green Head beach \u2014 about 250km north of Perth \u2014 in July 2023.<\/p>\n

The Australian Space Agency confirmed the debris was from an extended third stage of a polar satellite vehicle operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation.<\/p>\n

That debris spent six months stranded on the beach with ISRO refusing to claim it, before it was ultimately transported to Scitech in Perth.<\/p>\n

\"PoliceCamera IconPolice said initial assessments indicated the debris was made of carbon fibre. Credit: WA Police\/Supplied<\/p>\n

Science Minister Stephen Dawson said at the time that the debris was allowed to stay in Perth following discussions between Australian and Indian space authorities.<\/p>\n

It is understood that Indian space researchers were not interested in retrieving the debris because transporting it back to the subcontinent was too expensive.<\/p>\n

Communities around Green Head had hoped the piece would stay locally as a tourist attraction, but the Government ultimately decided Scitech was the best spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to make sure that as many Western Australians as possible could see it, understand it, learn about its journey, and hopefully get an interest sparked in science as a result,\u201d Mr Dawson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A burning ball of space junk has been found at a mine site in WA\u2019s Pilbara region. Emergency…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44,16802,52350,128,285,105,45],"class_list":["post-224864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-pilbara-news","tag-regional-wa","tag-science","tag-space","tag-technology","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}