A large metal ball that fell from space into the Namibian grasslands last month is not alien, officials say, but that’s about all they know for certain about the object. […]
Uh-oh.
Ape #1: Dear me. What are these things coming out of her nose?
Ape #2 (looks through binoculars): Spaceballs.
Ape #1: Oh, shit. There goes the planet.
😉
Joking aside, I’m very curious about these though.
[…] Ludik told The Namibian that the object poses no cause for alarm, and that such reports of metallic spheres falling from space are common in the Southern Hemisphere. […]
I’m only a casual armchair space enthusiast, but I can’t think of any spacecraft use for something of that shape and size. With the cost of lifting even a single pound into orbit, there’s no way any country would send up anything without a reason.
I read elsewhere that they’re fuel tanks for the stage of a commonly launched rocket. Rocket launches happen close by enough (many rocket launches happen as close to the equator as possible in Africa or South America, in space programs besides the US’s) for it to be plausible apparently.
Rhetorical question, but why wouldn’t they be recognized immediately by the people who design and work on such things, and explained? If not the professionals, then space enthusiasts should easily be able to step in and identify them.
Also, assuming the others are pretty much the same as that one, they seem pretty small to hold any appreciable amount of fuel. Even with a tiny payload, a rocket would have to burn up the contents of hundreds of those to get to orbit. That’s a lot of weight just in containers, even if they don’t make it all the way up.
They could be part of some kind of new and still classified launch system, but if so, you’d expect they wouldn’t be discarded where they would come down over land and be discovered.
It’s an interesting little mystery.
Space enthusiasts and professionals did identify them apparently. You just read an article that didn’t include that information. 😉