A Large Chunk of Rocket Space Debris Landed In Australia (newsweek.com) 36
Newsweek reports that "A huge piece of space debris appears to have fallen from the sky and landed on a sheep farm in Australia."
On July 9, locals across the Snowy Mountains in southern New South Wales heard a bang, ABC Australia reported. It was heard for miles, by those as far away as Albury, Wagga Wagga and Canberra.... Sheep farmer Mick Miners then came across a strange, charred object on his ranch, south of Jindabyne, on July 25. "I didn't know what to think, I had no idea what it was," Miners told ABC Australia.
He found the 10 foot chunk of metal wedged into the ground in a remote part of his sheep paddock.
He was not the only one. His neighbor, Jock Wallace also found some strange debris in the area. "I didn't hear the bang, but my daughters said it was very loud," Wallace told ABC. "I think it's a concern, it's just fallen out of the sky. If it landed on your house it would make a hell of a mess."
Serial numbers were noted on the charred, pieces of debris. Australian National University College of Science astrophysicist Brad Tucker told ABC News that the debris is likely from the trunk section of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. The spacecraft launched in 2020, and the debris may have fallen as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere.
Tucker told ABC that is may have been the largest piece of space debris to fall in Australia for decades — the last time was in 1979, when NASA's Skylab space station fell in Western Australia.
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader 192_kbps for sharing the article!
He found the 10 foot chunk of metal wedged into the ground in a remote part of his sheep paddock.
He was not the only one. His neighbor, Jock Wallace also found some strange debris in the area. "I didn't hear the bang, but my daughters said it was very loud," Wallace told ABC. "I think it's a concern, it's just fallen out of the sky. If it landed on your house it would make a hell of a mess."
Serial numbers were noted on the charred, pieces of debris. Australian National University College of Science astrophysicist Brad Tucker told ABC News that the debris is likely from the trunk section of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. The spacecraft launched in 2020, and the debris may have fallen as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere.
Tucker told ABC that is may have been the largest piece of space debris to fall in Australia for decades — the last time was in 1979, when NASA's Skylab space station fell in Western Australia.
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader 192_kbps for sharing the article!
Glad no one was hurt (Score:2)
Who is going to pay it this time? (Score:2)
Damn. (Score:4, Funny)
Even the sky tries to kill you in Australia!
Re:Glad no one was hurt (Score:5, Funny)
Is there any risk of toxicity with this part?
Only if Elon Musk makes more of those intemperate tweets.
"the debris may have fallen as it re-entered" (Score:1)
Wut ?!
So not China (Score:1, Troll)
This is a serious matter. I believe Spaces has been sited for not taking proper safety precaution. If this is a piece of spacex hardware, they should really be shut down until they prove they have the technologically ability to not kill us. They are so fussed on record number of launches, I doubt they are concerned that they might take out a family.
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And to think you thought up a slight against the "good guys" all by yourself. Please send us some more of your insightful comments.
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Who else is doing as much to get off this rock? I can't think of a more beneficial thing than to work towards long-term survival of our species.
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Space debris landing somewhere recklessly random is okay as long as it's the good guys doing it.
The thing is, a lot of people in China used to look up to America as role model. Now, many start to catch on to the hypocrisy and no longer cared what Americans think. What American media said will have less and less influence in China.
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He's not much concerned if he kills someone.
No, I think he would be hugely concerned. Not necessarily because of any ethical or moral qualms; but he does seem to have an unhealthy obsession with his public image (notwithstanding how often he shoots himself in the foot).
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The farmer should sell his debris to the China space program. They'll buy it for the data.
Re:So not China (Score:4, Informative)
Humans are incredibly bad at statistics or randomized events. This is one of those times.
The event of "Space Debris Falling From Sky Intact" is extremely rare. The chance of it actually hitting something or someone is even rarer.
The risk of you getting hit by a car when you're outside are several magnitudes larger, so let's ban cars?
Sometimes things go wrong. This was almost certainly not an intentional "Let's just launch and see where it lands".
Did you ever wonder why rocket launch sites are located where they are? To reduce the risk of crap falling from the sky after a launch. This is just a lot later :)
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Yes. And that's not mutually exclusive. Especially considering there's a lot of ocean around the equator.
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Did you ever wonder why rocket launch sites are located where they are? To reduce the risk of crap falling from the sky after a launch. This is just a lot later :)
Well, no. Launch sites are located where they are to get the most out of the Earth's spin.
It’s really both. Without a site near the equator it’s prohibitively expensive and restricts what you can do while rockets have a well established history of exploding and destroying anything nearby. Ideally the flight path goes over the ocean where you can get everyone out of the water and air first.
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But in this case we are talking about designing in risk. Like the Ford Pinto and similar cars. Your individual risk was near zero, but that was no consolation for those who were dead.
So far we have seen no casualties from space debris. We have not lived in a world where there are soon to be multiple major launches per week. So if we are not designing in safety, we are heading to fatalities, expensive ones,
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I'm sure that that must be a great comfort to Toilet Seat Girl [wikipedia.org].
Re: So not China (Score:1)
The chance of a bullet fired into the air harming someone as it comes down is allso small. Yet this practise is banned.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/s... [forbes.com]
How come Elon and China and the space agencies of the world get a free pass on uncontrolled reentry, while regular people have to follow the law. Especially with the (orders of magnitude?) increase in launches planned.
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If this is a piece of spacex hardware, they should really be shut down until they prove they have the technologically ability to not kill us.
No one died. Calm yourself man.
Space debris dump? (Score:4, Informative)
Wow, IIRC a big chuck of skylab landed in Australia. Seems to be the Space debris dumping ground.
I looked it up, here it is:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-31/nasa-skylab-fell-to-earth-esperance-retrofocus/12282468
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And if I recall correctly, NASA got fined for littering :D
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they did! although I don't know if anything was ever paid. Space-X should also be fined, although we REALLY need to up the price of such littering so as to encourage everyone to make controlled reentries.
Right now it just doesn't matter too much for many of them. There's a "dumping zone" that NASA and others (ESA?) use nowadays, but the smaller fish I don't think are being as responsible.
Maybe it'll take a hit that causes big damage (or injury / loss of life) to force it. aka "tombstone legislation"
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they did! although I don't know if anything was ever paid.
A radio station paid the $400 fine [spaceconne...ine.com.au].
Re:Space debris dump? (Score:4, Informative)
There's a spacecraft graveyard in the South Pacific between New Zealand and South America. It's used for safely disposing of defunct spacecraft.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sc... [dailymail.co.uk]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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A private company owned by Musk is now a substitute for "americans"? Hell, it wasn't even NASA. You came all this way to slight "americans", you could at least get your facts and logic straight.
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Penetrating insight... (Score:2)
"the debris may have fallen as it re-entered"
Gee, ya think?
SpaceX junk landed on my farm (Score:2)
Woo hoo! Free Starlink for life!
Re: SpaceX junk landed on my farm (Score:1)
Fire risk? (Score:2)
I don't believe it (Score:1)