{"id":226049,"date":"2025-10-19T22:11:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T22:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/226049\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T22:11:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T22:11:07","slug":"suspected-space-debris-found-on-fire-near-wa-mining-town-western-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/226049\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspected space debris found on fire near WA mining town | Western Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Authorities are investigating how suspected space debris ended up in outback Australia after mine workers found burning items.<\/p>\n

Western Australia<\/a> police are leading the response after the burning junk was located near the mining town of Newman on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

Transport safety officials ruled out the item being from a commercial aircraft, saying it was more likely to be re-entering space debris.<\/p>\n

Initial assessments indicate the item was made of carbon fibre, police said, and may be a composite-overwrapped pressure vessel or rocket tank, consistent with aerospace components. Photograph: Western Australia Police Force<\/p>\n

\u201cInitial assessments indicate the item was made of carbon fibre and may be a composite over-wrapped pressure vessel or rocket tank, consistent with aerospace components,\u201d a WA police spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe object remains under investigation, though its characteristics are consistent with known space re-entry debris \u2026 further technical assessment will be undertaken by engineers from the Australian Space<\/a> Agency to assist in identifying its nature and source.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mine site personnel found the burning object near a remote access road and called emergency services about 2pm, police said.<\/p>\n

Police, the Australian Space Agency, the WA Department of Fire and Emergency Services and the mine operators are all involved in the investigation.<\/p>\n

More details soon \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Authorities are investigating how suspected space debris ended up in outback Australia after mine workers found burning items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,128,285],"class_list":{"0":"post-226049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226049","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=226049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}