SpaceX Rocket Debris Falls And Hits Farmer's Field In Poland

Falcon 9 rocket Debris crashed in Poland (photo: X @SpaceX)

JAKARTA SpaceX revealed that its rocket debris crashed over Europe on February 19, 2025. The affected area was Poland, but there were no casualties in the incident.

This news was revealed on its official website, precisely on the Starlink mission launch page on February 1. SpaceX continues to launch dozens of Starlinks each week using a Falcon 9 rocket. Unfortunately, the launch at that time was not going well.

Although as many as 22 satellites were successfully placed in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), the upper stage failed to make de-orbits or the process of re-entry into Earth's atmosphere was under control. This happened because the upper stage failed to burn due to oxygen leakage.

"A small liquid oxygen leak occurred, which ultimately pushed the vehicle's pace higher than expected. As a result, after safe mission operations, deorbit burning was not carried out and vehicles were successfully evacuated in orbit," SpaceX said.

This rocket stage is still detected by US Space Force tracking data up to a few days before the accident occurred. However, due to atmospheric drag, the orbit of this object declined until it finally re-entered Earth and landed in Europe.

Falcon 9 Debris Loss Polish Farmers

According to a Spacenews report, the top stage of the Falcon 9 rocket was debris and landed near Pozna City. A small amount of damage occurred due to this debris, such as a broken light, but one of the farmers wanted to demand compensation.

The reason is, fields belonging to one of the farmers were slightly damaged and formed a small crater due to a collision left by one of the debris. On this issue, SpaceX said it had collaborated with the Polish government.

SpaceX promised recovery and cleaning, but did not discuss compensation as a result of the incident. The company only warns affected communities not to touch pieces of debris falling around it.

"No toxic material was found in the debris. If you are sure you have identified a piece of debris, don't try to handle or retrieve the debris directly. On the other hand, please contact the local authorities," SpaceX said.