The Australian Space Agency has identified a culprit for the chunk of space junk that washed up in Western Austrailia.
carrying a navigation satellite for the IRNSS constellation."That satellite was launched in the southward direction. It is possible that one of the parts of the rocket did not burn completely while dropping back into the atmosphere and fell into the ocean," the official added."It could later have been swept towards the Australian shore."
PSLV rockets are expendable medium-launch vehicles first flown in 1993 that were predominantly used to launch Indian Remote Sensing satellites into a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of around 370 miles over Earth. The fact that PSLVs can launch multiple satellites and are capable of carrying 3,860 pounds of payload during one journey has made them a popular choice for"ride-share"-type space missions.
As of July 17, when the first picture of the debris on Jurien Bay was released, PSLVs had flown 57 missions. The 58th mission for the vehicle occurred on July 29 after the debris had washed up and as the Australian Space Agency was conducting its investigation. While it's not currently known exactly which PSLV mission the debris came from, it certainly wasn't the latest flight of the rocket.
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