WATCH: SpaceX's Crew-7 astronauts return to Earth
SpaceX Crew 7 splashed down safely off the coast of Pensacola at 5:47 a.m. EDT on Tuesday. A recovery crew quickly reached the capsule, and a thermal imaging camera captured the entire process.
Clyde, North Carolina – Space experts believe that debris recently discovered in rural western North Carolina is actually the remains of a recent SpaceX mission that launched a four-person crew to the International Space Station.
The wreckage was discovered recently by employees of The Glamping Collective, a company that operates cabins and other facilities on a private mountaintop about 20 minutes west of Asheville, North Carolina.
The piece is at least three feet wide and is visibly charred, likely from passing through Earth's atmosphere.
The spacecraft is equipped with a thermal protection system to cope with the immense heat it will generate when re-entering Earth's atmosphere, but the mission's fuselage is designed to break apart during re-entry.
Suspected space junk discovered in rural North Carolina (The Glamping Collective / FOX Weather)
The Dragon spacecraft consists of two parts, the capsule and the trunk, but only the capsule carrying the astronauts will be reused for future space flights.
SpaceX defines the trunk as “the part that carries unpressurized cargo as well as supports the spacecraft during ascent.” Half of the trunk is covered with solar panels that power the Dragon during flight and while on station. The trunk remains connected to the Dragon until just before re-entering the Earth's atmosphere.
The trunk has a volume of about 1,300 cubic feet, and most of it will burn up during re-entry into the atmosphere at the end of the mission, according to the company.
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SpaceX rendering of the dragon's trunk (SpaceX / FOX Weather)
Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer and astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has been keeping a close eye on space debris, and on May 21 warned that the Crew-7 mission's Dragon trunk would return to Earth about two months after the astronauts splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico.
McDowell said the area most likely to see falling debris is from Tennessee through Virginia and West Virginia, and that debris sightings in North Carolina are certainly to be expected.
No injuries were reported in what is likely the latest encounter with space junk, but it is certainly a reminder that not all of a mission's expendable parts will burn up on impact.
Earlier this year, a piece of equipment from the International Space Station crashed through the roof of a Florida home.
NASA reported that astronauts released the battery pack into space from the ISS during an upgrade in March 2021.
The battery eventually fell to Earth, arriving at a Naples-area home on March 8, 2024.
At the time, NASA said, “NASA remains committed to responsible operations in low Earth orbit and, in the event that we must release a space instrument, to mitigate risks to the greatest extent possible to protect people here on Earth.”
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Similar debris from the spacecraft's fuselage has previously been found in Australia and Canada, but no injuries have been reported from the debris.
FOX Weather reached out to both NASA and SpaceX about the latest discovery, but did not immediately receive any response due to the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
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