Sheep farmers in Australia discovered a large piece of rocket debris near a paddock in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales (NSW). According to ABC South-East NSW, experts speculated that the charred piece of space debris was from a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that re-entered Earth on July 9 and crashed with a loud crash that shook the people in Albury, Wagga Wagga and Canberra. A local farmer rushed to the spot when he saw a burnt object, almost 3 meters high, embedded in the ground.
“I don’t know what to think. I had no idea what it was,” the farmer told ABC News.
In a Twitter post, astrophysicist Brad Tucker of the Australian National University College of Science documented that broken parts “crashed into a few paddocks” in Dalgety could be from the SpaceX Crew-1 Trunk capsule launched in November of 2020. Speaking to The Australian publication, Tucker reported that the “possible” unpressurized crew trunk from the SpaceX spacecraft is the largest piece of space debris on record to plummet in Australia since 1979. “In the photographs you can clearly see the carbonization of the debris, which you would expect from reentry,” Tucker said, adding that the sighting is usually rare since such space debris is assumed to land in the oceans primarily.
What is space debris?
Space debris is often referred to as space junk, space pollution, or space debris, usually made from broken pieces of missing rockets or spacecraft, man-made orbital debris. Although, they could also be natural substances such as disintegrated meteoroids or other celestial bodies. It is important to mention that after a rocket ascent, the parts separate to reduce the payload and the missing parts return to Earth with momentum. The fragments often burn up due to friction with the Earth’s atmosphere. However, they do not land primarily on land but in the oceans.
Chinese rocket scrap splashes into the Indian Ocean
The incident in Australia took place days before the Chinese rockets disintegrated in the Indian Ocean. On Saturday, the US Space Command reported that a Chinese Long March 5B rocket, occupying the second main module of its new Tiangong space station, made an “uncontrolled” return to Earth. Parts of the 23-ton, 50-meter-long rocket also splashed into the Pacific Ocean near Palawan Island in the eastern Philippines. The undisciplined landing occurred as most Chinese rockets launched from the unfinished Tiangong space station do not have such advanced facilities, the BBC reported.
Space observers recorded videos of burning Chinese rocket debris re-entering the surface. Meanwhile, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Administrator Bill Nelson criticized China for its irresponsible disposal of space junk. He claimed that the PRC did not “share specific trajectory information as its Long March 5B fell back to Earth.” Dr Nelson added: “All spacefaring nations should follow established best practice and do their part to share this type of information in advance to enable reliable predictions of the potential risk of debris impact, especially for heavy transport vehicles, such as the Long March 5B, which carry a significant risk of loss of life and property, doing so is critical to the responsible use of space and to ensuring the safety of people here on earth”.