The SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft is lifted onto the GO Navigator recovery ship after it … [+]
Part of a SpaceX space capsule has been found in farmer’s field in rural New South Wales, Australia.
The stunning find was revealed in a video on YouTube posted by Dr Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist at Mt Stromlo Observatory in Australia. He had been on site to identify the strange-looking object. “It’s about 3m tall and weights about 20-30kg,” said Tucker.
Tucker, who often gets called to go check out reports of space debris, said that the triangular piece of debris—said to be from a SpaceX Crew-1 trunk—was found near Dalgety. “What made this one special was the SpaceX Crew-1 trunk was a catalogued object, and it was catalogued known to be going over New South Wales and re-entering around 7:05 a.m. on Saturday, July 9.”
At that time people reported hearing the sonic boom as it re-entered and saw bright lights as it fragmented, said Tucker.
Since the discovery a further two pieces of space junk from the same spacecraft have been found, reported the Guardian.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission was the first crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft “Resilience” and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
It launched on November 15, 2020 from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center carrying NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker as well as astronaut Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
“Resilience” returned to Earth on May 2, 2021.
Last week parts of a Chinese rocket core, CZ-5B, fell to Earth and were found off the Phillipines. Launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Site, China on July 24, 2022 on a Chinese Long March 5B rocket.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
