Shepherd to sue over falling rocket

A SHEPHERD is suing Russia’s space agency for compensation after he said a 3-metre-long chunk of metal from a space rocket fell into his yard, just missing his outdoor toilet.

Boris Urmatov is asking for 1 million roubles ($42,000) from the Roskosmos agency. He lives in a village that lies underneath the flight-path of rockets taking off from Baikonur launchpad in Kazakhstan.

“Something woke him up in the night, like something exploded. Since he’s visually handicapped, he didn’t notice the fallen rocket parts,” Urmatov’s sister Marina said from Kyrlyk, a village 3,500km east of Moscow.

“But in the morning in front of the shepherd hut, he saw this enormous metal casing, as smooth as an egg,” she said. “It nearly crushed the outhouse.”

She said Boris was seeking damages to compensate him for the stress he suffered.

Residents in a neighbouring village said rocket pieces regularly rain down on their area. Parts of the countryside special zones where people may not go during the launches.

Roskosmos said it warns residents when a launch is scheduled, and in 50 years and 400 rockets, only a few rocket parts have fallen outside designated areas.

“Technologically speaking, these parts are supposed to fall off during a launch. They fly, they fall, they fly, they fall. It’s how they work,” spokesman Alexander Vorobyov said.