One December afternoon, the sky tore open and a fiery hunk of metal, wider than a school bus, came hurtling down.
It was louder than a thunderclap when it plunged into a patch of farmland, startling everyone in the village of Mukuku, about three hours south of Nairobi, Kenya.
“People were thinking this is the end of the world,” said John Mukunuu, who lives nearby.
When the villagers arrived, they found a giant ring, taller than a man and heavier than a horse, lodged into the earth. They watched it cool from a glowing ember to a dull gray. They guarded it, taking the occasional selfie, until officials from the capital swarmed the village.
The ring had once connected parts of a rocket. It was supposed to have burned up on its return to Earth.
“This is an isolated event,” the Kenya Space Agency said in early 2025.
Not exactly.
More space debris is raining down on Earth than ever before — one effect of the frenetic race among governments and companies like SpaceX to reign over the skies.