SpaceX Falcon 9 launches EarthCARE satellite to study heating and cooling in Earth's atmosphere
SpaceX Falcon 9 launched the EarthCARE satellite, which will study clouds and aerosols in the Earth's atmosphere, into orbit from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. (Credit: SpaceX / Associated Press)
Space junk made a crash landing in a land of North Carolina luxury.
A landscaping crew working at The Glamping Collective, a mountaintop resort near Asheville in Haywood County, found a large mysterious object on May 22 that NASA confirmed is a piece of SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule that reached the International Space Station (ISS) in 2023.
There was one large piece – about the size of a standard car hood and covered in a carbon fiber weave – found on a hiking trail, and several other smaller pieces fell in the backyards of nearby homes, according to a report by Space.com.
The objects were from the "Dragon spacecraft trunk hardware" that was "predicted to burn up fully," ABC 13 in North Carolina reported.
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SpaceX debris found along a trail at North Carolina's mountaintop luxury resort on May 22. (Brett Tingley)
Other pieces of the Elon Musk-funded SpaceX's capsule were found in Canada in February and more recently in Saudi Arabia around the time the piece in North Carolina was located, NASA said in its statement.
"NASA is unaware of any structural damage or injuries resulting from these findings," the space agency said in its statement.
A Florida family had a similar, albeit a much scarier, run-in with space junk that didn't burn up as expected.
In March, a 1.6-pound metal alloy object burrowed through the roof and two floors of a Naples, Florida, home while a family member was inside.
The homeowner, Alejandro Otero, said on X that it, "Tore through the roof and went thru (sic) 2 floors. Almost his (sic) my son."
Recovered stanchion from the NASA flight support equipment used to mount International Space Station batteries on a cargo pallet. The stanchion survived re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere on March 8, 2024, and impacted a home in Naples, Florida. (NASA)
Space debris found on a trail of a luxurious North Carolina mountaintop resort is about the size of a car hood. (Bretty Tingley)
The Glamping Collective resort in North Carolina lit up at night. (The Glamping Collective)
Just like the object that crashed in North Carolina, the object that hit the Otero family's home was supposed to "heat up and break apart during atmospheric re-entry," NASA told Fox News Digital in a previous email.
No one was hurt in either situation, but the Otero family's lawyer, Mica Nguyen Worthy, said, "A ‘near miss’ situation such as this could have been catastrophic.
"Space debris is a real and serious issue because of the increase in space traffic in recent years," Worthy said.
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NASA said it's performing a "detailed investigation of the jettison and re-entry analysis to determine the cause of the debris survival and to update modeling and analysis."
"NASA remains committed to responsibly operating in low Earth orbit, and mitigating as much risk as possible to protect people on Earth when space hardware must be released."
In this Saturday, April 24, 2021 photo made available by NASA, the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule approaches the International Space Station for docking. (NASA via AP)
Boeing's Starliner and SpaceX's Crew Dragon are vastly different rockets. (NASA)
To further Worthy's point, a defunct Russian satellite imploded near the ISS last week, prompting a brief discussion during Friday's teleconference with NASA and Boeing officials.
The teleconference with reporters was largely focused on Starliner's helium leaks and faulty thrusters, but officials expressed little concern that the satellite debris would reach Earth.
The threat was avoided after the pieces missed the ISS.
The resort marketed the space debris as an attraction.
"We invite you to come experience this yourself! Starting Monday June 3rd," the resort said on its website. "We will have the space debris on display for your viewing at the start of our Sunset Summit Trail!"
The Florida family took a more stern approach to the object that hit their house.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule on launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 9, 2021 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
"An aurora streams below Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft docked to the forward port on the Harmony module as the International Space Station soared 266 miles above the Indian Ocean southwest of Australia," according to NASA. (NASA/Matt Dominick)
Worthy filed a claim to NASA on behalf of the Otero family and said this is an opportunity for NASA to "set a precedent as to what responsible, safe, and sustainable space operations ought to look like."
"If the incident had happened overseas, and someone in another country were damaged by the same space debris as in the Oteros’ case, the U.S. would have been absolutely liable to pay for those damages."
She implored NASA and the U.S. government to follow the same legal principle.
NASA declined to comment on pending legal action.
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