AUSTRALIA: Parts of space junk were found at a sheep farm in Australia. It is believed to be one of the pieces of a SpaceX rocket, according to a report from ABC South-East NSW.
On July 9, a bang was heard throughout the Snowy Mountains in southern New South Wales. People in Albury, Wagga Wagga, and Canberra could hear it for miles, the outlet said.
When a rocket is launched, pieces of the spacecraft frequently separate from the primary payload and fall back on Earth. When they come in contact with the planet’s atmosphere, the majority of these fragments burn up.
The ocean, which makes up two thirds of the Earth’s surface, is where larger chunks that make it through the atmosphere are more likely to land. But sometimes they do manage to touch down the land.
There was much suspicion that it might have been brought on by the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. An astrophysicist told Newsweek that the debris is likely from the trunk section of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, which was launched in November 2020.
The nearly three-metre high object was found by sheep farmer Mick Miners in a remote area of his field in Numbla Vale, south of Jindabyne, Australia.
Meanwhile, the remains of a Chinese rocket that was hurtling back towards Earth have crashed into the Indian Ocean, the country’s space agency says.
The bulk of the rocket was destroyed as it re-entered the atmosphere, but state media reported that debris landed just west of the Maldives on Sunday.
There have been days of speculation over where the rocket might land, and US officials and other experts warned its return risked potential casualties. But China insisted the risk was low.
The Long March-5b vehicle re-entered the atmosphere at 10:24 Beijing time (02:24 GMT) on Sunday, state media reported, citing the Chinese Manned Space Engineering office. There were no reports of injuries or damage. – BBC NEWS