The head of the Polish Space Agency (POLSA), Grzegorz Wrochna, has been dismissed following an incident in which debris from Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket fell on Polish territory. The agency failed to promptly warn government authorities about the potential threat.
The dismissal was announced by Poland’s Ministry of Development and Technology, according to RMF24. Earlier, media reports indicated that the Ministry of Defense had called for Wrochna’s resignation after shortcomings in the alert system came to light.
On the morning of February 19, fragments of a SpaceX rocket entered the atmosphere and fell in several locations around Poznań. Fortunately, no injuries were reported. However, it was later revealed that the Polish Space Agency had sent the warning to an incorrect email address at the Ministry of Defense, resulting in the military learning about the incident from the news.
As a result, Wrochna was summoned for explanations and was ordered to address the deficiencies in the alert system. In its defense, POLSA stated that it is nearly impossible to predict the exact location where debris will fall in advance, as the object could have burned up in the atmosphere.
