SpaceX Debris Fell from the Sky an Landed on a Farm in Australia A massive chunk of the SpaceX Crew-1 Dragon rocket was found in a farmer's field in rural Australia.
By Emily Rella
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The billionaire space race has been a contentious one, with many pointing fingers at Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson for wasting money and resources to leave the atmosphere instead of using that money to work on problems down here on Earth.
The latest flop (or, rather, drop?) at SpaceX, where Musk is CEO, probably isn't helping his case. A piece of debris from a SpaceX rocket reportedly detached and was found on a field in New South Wales, Australia.
The piece of debris was discovered by Mick Miners, a local farmer.
The massive black object is thought to have fallen from the sky from the SpaceX Crew-1 Dragon spacecraft earlier last month but wasn't discovered until this week.
The piece of debris in question would have come from the trunk of the vehicle, the "unpressurized cargo hold" which also supports the crew as the rocket takes off, according to Space.com.
SpaceX confirmed reports of the fallen debris during a press conference on Thursday, reporting that special teams are headed to the outback to examine the situation and confirm that it is indeed SpaceX material, while also noting that there were no injuries or damages associated with the fallout.
"We use models that are ultimately approved, to predict and plan for these things," SpaceX director Benjamin Reed said via press conference, adding that the possibility of the debris falloff was "within our analysis" and that the company is "digging into it."
It was a busy day for SpaceX Thursday amid the debris discovery as the company launched its Falcon 9 rocket to carry out South Korea's first-ever moon mission around 7 p.m EST.
Yesterday's launch marked SpaceX's first of August and the 34th of this year.
