A fragment of unknown origin found near Novosibirsk has been tested for radiation, the radiation background is normal, said on Tuesday the head of the department for civil defense and emergency situations of the Kuibyshevsky district of the region, Valery Vasilyev.
Some media reported that a special commission allegedly found out that the fragment found was part of the fuel tank of a ballistic missile launched in Kamchatka at the end of December. The media also published a version that the debris may be part of the fallen satellite "Meridian".
However, a spokesman for the press service of Roscosmos said that, according to preliminary estimates, the found object has nothing to do with rocket and space technology. “The final conclusion can be made after the specialists have carried out a detailed study of the subject,” the source said.
According to Vasiliev, a fragment of about 1.1 meters long was found near the village of Otradinskoye on Sunday by local residents. “They went to collect firewood and stumbled upon this,” he said.
The found object was brought to the city of Kuibyshev
A group of specialists from the search and rescue squad left for the site on Monday. They checked the background radiation. “Everything is normal,” the interlocutor said, adding that the fragment had been delivered to the Interior Ministry department.
Vasiliev reported that the fragment was most likely made of titanium.
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The head of the department for civil defense and emergency situations of the Kuibyshevsky region also said that in the 1950s and 1960s, in the western part of the region, people often found debris, presumably from spacecraft launched from Baikonur. “We haven't found anything like that for a long time,” he said.
In December 2011, the launch of the dual-purpose satellite "Meridian" from the Plesetsk cosmodrome ended in failure. As a result of the failure of the engine of the third stage of the Soyuz-2 launch vehicle, the spacecraft did not enter the calculated orbit, and its debris fell in Siberia. 17 fragments were found in the Ordynsky district of the Novosibirsk region, one of them fell on a private house in the village of Vagaytsevo, breaking through the roof.