Australian farmers keep finding SpaceX debris that has fallen on their land.
Farmer Jordan Hobbs found a rectangular metal plate on his land and mistook it for ordinary garbage, but then he wondered if it was a fragment of the Crew Dragon spacecraft that entered the Earth’s atmosphere in early July.
Hobbs contacted Australian National University astrophysicist Brad Tucker, and he confirmed the farmer’s version.
Launched in November 2020, the spacecraft delivered four astronauts to the ISS for a six-month stay that ended in May 2021. The capsule’s trunk was discarded before re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. It was a necessary and planned maneuver.
SpaceX has admitted that it has received “reports of debris of the Dragon trunk that had landed in the outback of Australia.” According to Benjamin Reed, the director of SpaceX’s Human Spaceflight Program, a special team will study this and other similar incidents.
Despite the potential danger of falling debris, the Australian farmer took it all in good fun.