ISRO to send team to investigate objects that fell from sky in Maharashtra

The India Space Research Organization (ISRO) will send a team of its experts to the village of Pawanpur, in the Chandrapur district of Maharashtra, to investigate what are believed to be the remains of a disintegrated Chinese rocket.

“Inputs from various sources have been received regarding the mysterious flashing light seen in the sky in the evening hours on April 3… A metal ring and a cylinder-like object have been reported to have been found in an open field in Pawanpur village. At the request of the district administration, a team of scientists from ISRO is visiting Pawanpur for inspection and further scientific research,” reads a post from ISRO’s Facebook page.

The Hindu contacted senior officials of the organization for comment, but received none.

Social media was abuzz on Sunday with videos of a flaming meteor-like object seen from people’s terraces in Maharashtra. Space debris or remnants of satellites, rockets and other objects in space crashing into Earth are common, but it is relatively rare for such objects to fall on land.

Reports from facilities tracking the path of such objects suggested it was a return of a Chinese rocket stage, the third stage of the Chang Zheng 3B serial number Y77 that launched in February 2021. However, there has been no confirmation from Chinese authorities or Indian officials about the provenance of these space objects.

The growing number of satellites and space launches means that space, near Earth, is full of space objects. While there are international initiatives to detect such debris, ISRO has a Directorate for Space Situational Awareness and Management (DSSAM) established at ISRO, in Bengaluru. One of his missions is to track the trajectory of space objects. ISRO has said that the NETwork for Space Object Tracking and Analysis (NETRA) project has been launched as a first step towards achieving this goal, its key elements being a radar, an optical telescope facility and a control center.

• The India Space Research Organization (ISRO) will send a team of its experts to the village of Pawanpur, in the Chandrapur district of Maharashtra, to investigate what are believed to be the remains of a disintegrated Chinese rocket

• Space debris or remnants of satellites, rockets and other objects in space hitting Earth are common, but it is relatively rare for such objects to fall on land

• The growing number of satellites and space launches means that space, near Earth, is full of space objects. While there are international initiatives to detect such waste, ISRO has a Directorate of Space Situational Awareness and Management (DSSAM) established at ISRO, in Bengaluru