SpaceX Crew Dragon, an Australian farmer found pieces of a spaceship on his farm

In Australia, waste is raining down from space. It happens on a farm in the mountains, where at least three have been found debrisprobably produced by the reentry of one of the spacecraft of the SpaceX by Elon Musk.

According to NASA and the Australian authorities, the debris found at the farm likely came from instruments belonging to one Crew Dragon, the SpaceX spacecraft designed to take astronauts to the International Space Station. In all likelihood, it would be the vehicle that hosted astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi a few months ago.

“Normally, on impact with the atmosphere, this debris chars and ends up in the ocean without major risks to public safety,” reads a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration. the safety of NASA space missions. The agency explained that on this occasion, things were different: the part of the spacecraft that was in Australia it was ejected before the Crew Dragon returned, leaving it in orbit for over a year. “Some pieces of the wreckage survived the impact with the atmosphere and reached the Earth’s surface in good condition.”

G’day @Elon MuskI’m a reporter at @ABC news that covers the discovery of @SpaceX rubble in Australia. I wonder if someone from your team is coming to pick it up?
Here is a picture of one of the pieces pic.twitter.com/NcJeuigQzx

— Adriane Reardon (@adrianereardon) August 3, 2022

Episodes like this will no doubt be repeated. With the intensification of space missions, especially those operated by private companies, they threaten to become more and more frequent. Last year, debris from the second stage of a SpaceX rocket was found on a Washington farm.