Photos of an unusual round metal object that washed up on the shores of Madagascar were posted on social media. It turned out to be a piece of the Starship spacecraft.
The discovery was made back in December last year. Fishermen discovered a strange metal sphere in the north of Kimia Island, located off the west coast of Madagascar. They left the find where it was in case its owner appeared. However, he never showed up.
Subsequently, experts managed to determine what the strange object actually was. This is a methane tank, part of the Starship spacecraft with serial number S35. It was launched on May 27, 2025. The flight was planned to deploy Starlink satellite mockups.
However, due to a fuel leak, SpaceX was unable to implement these plans. Starship lost control and crashed into the Indian Ocean. Later, ocean currents carried one of its debris pieces to Madagascar.
This is far from the first time that various components of SpaceX rockets have been found. For example, in 2025, debris from a Falcon 9 fell in Poland.
