Topic: SpaceX Crew Dragon trunk debris in Australia
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 49232 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 07-29-2022 08:52 AM
A large piece of debris found in the middle of a sheep paddock is possibly part of the trunk from SpaceX's Crew-1 Dragon spacecraft, reports ABC News (Australia).
Mick Miners, who runs a sheep farm at Numbla Vale, south of Jindabyne, stumbled across an almost three metre high object wedged into a remote part of his paddock on Monday.
"I didn't know what to think, I had no idea what it was," he said.
After the discovery, he called neighbouring farmer Jock Wallace, who also found some mysterious debris nearby. ...
Australian National University College of Science astrophysicist Brad Tucker said the debris was most likely from the unpressurised crew trunk of the craft.
He said it was possibly the largest piece of documented debris in Australia since NASA's Skylab space station came plummeting back to Earth above Esperance in Western Australia in 1979.
I just got back from Dalgety, NSW. I was busy confirming that parts of a SpaceX Crew-1 Trunk capsule crashed into a few paddocks in rural NSW!
MartinAir Member
Posts: 221 From: Registered: Oct 2020
posted 07-29-2022 09:48 AM
Lucky farmers, "wish" it crashed in my backyard.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 49232 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 07-29-2022 10:31 AM
If its origin can be confirmed, then the company or country that launched the rocket still owns the debris (unless and until such time ownership is explicitly relinquished).
So they can get some nice selfies, but maybe no souvenirs.
SkyMan1958 Member
Posts: 1237 From: CA. Registered: Jan 2011
posted 07-29-2022 10:56 AM
Acturally, that is really bad to find. That means the trunk does not fully burn up on re-entry.
Further, given that where SpaceX retrieves Dragon is in a relatively small area, e.g. more or less to the East or West of Florida, that means that all the trunks will be jettisoned in roughly the same part of their orbital tracks, which means this debris will fall regularly on Australia. Granted, most of Australia is desert, but if you drop four to six of these every year on Australia, someone eventually will be hit. It appears on Google Maps that Canberra is roughly 60 miles away from Jindabyne. SpaceX needs to figure out a way to ameliorate this.
Ken Havekotte Member
Posts: 3527 From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard Registered: Mar 2001
posted 07-29-2022 01:57 PM
Most interesting! From the look of that giant debris from Crew-1 Dragon's jettisoned trunk, that's quite a large structure that survived such a fierce reentry. As SkyMan1958 pointed out, SpaceX may have to do a safety study on the issue.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 49232 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 07-29-2022 01:59 PM
The trunk is jettisoned prior to the deorbit burn, so when and where it comes down is more of a factor of the orbital environment (solar weather) than where it separates.
If this debris is indeed from Crew-1, than it fell out of orbit after just over a year. As Jonathan McDowell pointed out at the time of jettison:
The Dragon trunk ejected from Resilience yesterday has been cataloged as 48342 / 2020-084B. Surprisingly it's in a 406 x 411 km x 51.6 orbit, so the depart burns lowered the orbit hardly at all and the trunk will be up for a long time.
SkyMan1958 Member
Posts: 1237 From: CA. Registered: Jan 2011
posted 07-29-2022 05:51 PM
Interesting to find out that the trunk is jettisoned before the retrofire burn (which makes sense). Obviously having the whole 51.6 orbital inclination of the ISS ground track makes the likelihood of hitting a human significantly less than a relatively constrained area in Australia. Still, having pieces that large regularly falling out of the sky is not a good look for SpaceX, as there is always the possibility of human fatality somewhere around the Earth. One would hope that they would still attempt to ameliorate the issue.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 49232 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 07-31-2022 11:59 AM
This video from astrophysicist Brad Tucker with the Mt. Stromlo Observatory gives a better idea of where the larger of the two pieces was found.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 49232 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 08-01-2022 06:52 PM
A third piece of debris from what is believed to be the Crew-1 trunk has now been found.
The third piece of debris was discovered and photographed by a Moonbah resident on July 14.
It was not until the ABC's coverage of the space junk in late July that the owner came forward.
News of the discoveries also led to a visit from technical experts at the Australian Space Agency and NSW Police on Saturday.
"The agency is actively working to support formal identification of the objects, and is engaging with our counterparts in the US," an agency spokesperson said.
"If the community spots any further suspected debris they should contact local police in the first instance."
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 49232 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 08-04-2022 12:31 PM
Benji Reed, senior director of human spaceflight at SpaceX, spoke about this debris find at today's Crew-5 pre-flight news briefing:
We did get reports of debris from a Dragon trunk that had landed in the outback of Australia. We actually have a team that's going there to check that out and we've been working closely with the State Department, with the FAA and with the Australian Space Agency.
The important news is that there was no no injuries, no damage. Also important is this was all within the expected analyzed space of what could happen. We know, as a space industry, we launch things and they come back in and you have an expected path of where things may come down. This particular debris was within that analyzed space. It's part of the process that we do with NASA and with the FAA. We use models that are all jointly approved to predict and plan for these things.
Nonetheless, just like we do for launches and any return that we do all the time, we look very close at the data, we learn everything that we can and and always look for ways that we can improve things. But again, this was within the analyzed base of expectation.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 49232 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
Four separate fragments were found on farms near Dalgety, Jindabyne and Tumbarumba, which are now being secured by the Australian Space Agency.
"The Australian Space Agency has begun collecting the space debris found in the Snowy Mountains region of NSW, inline with our international obligations," said a spokesperson from the Australian Space Agency.
"The pieces will be stored until their permanent destination is settled. Some pieces will be returned to the US for further investigation."
posted 07-29-2022 08:52 AM
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