The fuselage of what is thought to be a booster rocket from a recent NASA launch has washed up on the beach at Wotje Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
A U.S. Embassy official in Majuro says, based on identifying marks on the sections of the rocket that washed ashore it appears to be the stage one booster of a Pegasus rocket that helped launch an IRIS solar observatory into orbit.
The most recent launch was on June 27 from Vandenberg Air Force base in California.
Photo: supplied
The official says the purpose of the NASA launch was environmental research, not weapons testing.
Staff at the US Army base at Kwajalein are to clean-up the rocket parts.
