{"id":227628,"date":"2025-10-20T14:23:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T14:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/227628\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T14:23:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T14:23:15","slug":"newman-space-junk-likely-part-of-chinese-rocket-says-experts-as-authorities-flag-months-long-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/227628\/","title":{"rendered":"Newman space junk likely part of Chinese rocket says experts as authorities flag months-long investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Chinese rocket ship fuel tank that was discarded as the craft entered orbit and crashed back down to earth is the most likely source of the space junk that landed in WA\u2019s north on Saturday, experts predict.<\/p>\n

But police estimate it could take months to find the origins of the wreck which crash landed on a remote access road 30km east of Newman in WA\u2019s Pilbara region on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The wreckage \u2014 which measured more than 1m in diameter \u2014 was still yet to be moved on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

According to police the debris was first found by mine site personnel at around 2pm on Saturday still on fire.<\/p>\n

Eerie footage was released of police officers in full PPE inspecting the debris in the middle of the road.<\/p>\n

WATCH THE FOOTAGE IN THE VIDEO PLAYER ABOVE<\/p>\n

As officials begin the potentially lengthy task of identifying where the carbon fibre fuel tank came from, experts have predicted it is most likely from the fourth stage of the Jielong rocket from China.<\/p>\n

Flinders University associate professor and space archaeologist Alice Gorman said the orbital path and dimensions of the object makes it the likely culprit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s likely the fourth stage of a Chinese Jielong rocket, this is a fairly recent rocket which was made operational in 2022, only eight launches so far and they\u2019ve all been successful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fourth-stage rocket with solid propellant and has been delivering a bunch of satellites every time it\u2019s launched.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis one looks like it was from the fourth stage which would\u2019ve been discarded in orbit and so it\u2019s returned to earth from orbit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The theory was backed by Dorota Mieczkowska of the UWA International Space Centre who said the re-entry prediction made it likely the object was part of the Jielong rocket body.<\/p>\n

\"TheCamera IconThe junk was found on a mine site near Newman. Credit: WA Police\/Supplied<\/p>\n

Not all were so quick to speak with confidence however, as Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy executive director Steven Tingay said it was too soon to tell.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen that speculation online and I guess that\u2019s possible but there\u2019d need to be some evidence pinning it back to any particular object,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Officials were also careful not to lay the blame, saying it could take weeks or months of investigating.<\/p>\n

Acting Pilbara Superintendent Les Andrews said there were no indications yet.<\/p>\n

\u201dThere\u2019s no specific nation involved or suggestion at all, there are 1000s and 1000s of satellites up in the sky, in orbit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all require rocket propellant to obviously get launched out there, it\u2019s certainly not something that we\u2019re looking at regards to country of origin, because there\u2019s so many out there, it\u2019s not really relevant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Andrews said the object was first thought to be a plane tyre, but he ultimately turned to AI for help to work out what it was.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few other suggestions were put forward, which proved incorrect so I punched a photo into artificial intelligence, and it provided these suggestions, it basically went off from there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"ACamera IconA police officer inspects the debris. Credit: WA Police\/Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cThe AI indicator was possibly space debris reentry, and that appears to be where we\u2019re at.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Australian Space Agency spokesperson confirmed it was working with teams on the ground to identify the object.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe debris is likely a propellant tank or pressure vessel from a space launch vehicle,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Agency is continuing the process of determining the exact nature of the debris and its origin through engagement with global counterparts.\u201d<\/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 object was eventually traced back to an Indian rocket.<\/p>\n

\"We\u2019reCamera IconWe\u2019re pretty sure we\u2019ve seen this science fiction movie before. And it doesn\u2019t end well. Credit: WA Police\/Supplied<\/p>\n

Mr Tingay said space junk re-entry was becoming more common with several dozen each year in Australia, most of which happening and are never found.<\/p>\n

He said the risk to safety was ever increasing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe probability is low, but overtime as the number of these events increases then obviously the chances become higher, \u201c he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis particular object landed on a road, on a mine site so the chances of a car going past or something else going past is obviously low but it\u2019s sort of a matter of time until there\u2019s a re-entry event over a populated area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Science and Innovation Minister Stephen Dawson said the Government was looking to technology to mitigate the risk of space junk falling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not every day that we come across space debris, and I look forward to hearing more updates on this discovery in our State\u2019s north,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Western Australia\u2019s large size and sparse population density, the risk space debris poses is low.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, the Cook Labor Government understands that having access to the latest technology and data available to monitor space debris is paramount for space agencies, international governments, and the private space sector.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Chinese rocket ship fuel tank that was discarded as the craft entered orbit and crashed back down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,44,21879,16802,52350,128,285,105,45],"class_list":["post-227628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-pilbara","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\/227628","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=227628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}