Space junk found in Australia suspected to be from SpaceX
Authorities confirmed on Thursday that charred space debris found in Australia in a sheep pen by a rancher came from one of SpaceX’s missions.
The piece of metal, believed to have fallen on July 9, was discovered last week in Dalgety, a remote New South Wales village about five hours’ drive southwest of Sydney.
“It was both exciting and strange,” Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist who visited the site after being contacted by local farmers in July, told AFP.
He said the discovery of this piece buried in an empty field reminded him of the science fiction film “2001: A Space Odyssey”.
The Australian space agency confirmed in a press release that this debris came from one of the missions carried out by Space X, which belongs to multi-billionaire Elon Musk.
“The Agency has confirmed that the debris is from a SpaceX mission,” an Australian Space Agency spokesperson said.
Mr. Tucker said that this piece of metal is part of a part dropped by the Crew-1 capsule during its re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere in 2021.
Other space junk has also been found at nearby properties and it’s possible it has a connection to SpaceX’s mission.
Most space debris washes up at sea, but as space industry activity increases around the world, the amount of debris crashing into the earth is expected to increase, he added.
“We must realize that there is a probable risk that this affects an inhabited area”, underlined the spokesperson.
The Australian Space Agency said it was working to reduce the number of debris and had raised the issue internationally.
