It's a bad fortnight for space things falling down

First some poor sod in Namibia has a metal ball a bit over a metre around crash through their roof, reports Discovery News

Turns out it is a gas pressure vessel, and quite a common thing to happen apparently...! Well for us folk in the Southern Hemisphere anyway... Turns out they are built pretty tough, so tend to survive re-entry.

Unlike this third stage rocket booster from the latest Soyuz launch to take International Space Station crew up for a shift change. This spectacular footage was take over Germany, but at least this one burnt up before hitting someone or something:




(See the YouTube video clip title calls it a comet? Everyone expects comets to go whizzing across the sky just like this...sigh.)

And then Russia had another Soyuz launch - this one unmanned - that did not go well at all - crashing shortly after liftoff. That was the fifth Russian space mission to go pear-shaped this year. It was a different model from the one being used for people movement but get this - it was a MORE modern version...?

One that didn't get off the ground for Russia was another satellite meant for a Boxing Day launch but yet another upper-stage failure grounded the launch for some weeks while they sort the problem.

Which brings us to that other Russian mission - Phobos Grunt. Failing to boost out of Earth orbit and on the way to Mars' moon Phobos to sample soil ("grunt" in Russian), its orbit has been degrading every since. And  it is now due to come a crashing back down to Earth about 5 January...

So keep looking up - you may have to run for it!