On April 24, 1996, the Ballistic Missile Defense
Organization (BMDO) launched an MSX satellite on a Delta II booster from
Vandenberg AFB, California.
The only person on record ever hit by space debris was
hit by a piece of the Delta II rocket that launched MSX.
Lottie Williams was exercising in a park in Tulsa on
January 22, 1997 when she was hit in the shoulder by a 6 inch piece of
blackened metallic material. U.S. Space Command confirmed that a used Delta II
rocket from the April 1966 launch of the Midcourse Space Experiment had crashed
into the atmosphere 30 minutes earlier. The object tapped Lottie Williams on
the shoulder and fell off harmlessly onto the ground. Williams collected the item
and NASA tests later showed the fragment was consistent with the materials of
the rocket.
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