by Spaceflight doesn’t usually come to mind when one thinks of the serene verdant mountains of North Carolina.
It’s true that in the early 1960s, NASA built the (now defunct) Rosman Satellite Tracking and Data Acquisition Facility among the rolling hills of Appalachia to track Soviet satellites and relay communications for the Gemini and Apollo programs. And, of course, there are some pockets of dark skies over Western North Carolina that allow for decent satellite and skywatch viewing.
But when it comes to the boom in contemporary private spaceflight, these lush mountains are about as far as you can get from the bustling spaceports of Florida’s Space Coast. That’s why it was such a shock to learn that space debris was identified near Canton, NC – just outside the city of Asheville, where I live.
I had to go see it for myself.
Related: Debris from SpaceX Dragon ‘stock’ may have crashed into Canadian farmer’s field (photos)
On May 22, groundskeeper Justin Clontz and his father were doing trail maintenance at the scenic Glamping Collective, a 160-acre luxury camping property that offers private, dome-style mountaintop cabins with panoramic views of the Pisgah and Cherokee National Forests around.
Coming around a bend in the trail that day, Clontz and his father stumbled upon an odd piece of junk lying on the ground, not far from the path at all. About 3 feet by 3 feet (1 meter by 1 meter), the debris consisted of shredded carbon fiber composite and scorched metal, with exposed metal bolts and plates sticking out. It smelled faintly, like ozone.
“It landed right in the middle of the track,” Clontz told Space.com. “It was just wild. It was crazy-looking. I really didn’t know what to think.”
There was no damage to surrounding trees or grass, Clontz said. It was as if someone had put the debris right where it could be found, on a peaceful trail through the Pisgah National Forest.
Clontz and other Glamping Collective employees initially thought the debris might be from a military aircraft. “I didn’t know if we should be touching it,” Clontz added.
Soon, scientists would add weight.
As it turned out, the piece of debris likely came from the re-entry of the SpaceX Crew-7 mission to the International Space Station, which returned to Earth on March 12, 2024, according to astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics . . “This certainly looks like part of the fuselage of the Crew-7 Dragon that re-entered a path directly above this site on Tuesday,” McDowell wrote on X after news of the debris began to spread.
The astrophysicist also posted a map tracing the re-entry path of the Crew-7 trunk piece suspected of being responsible for the debris, which shows the spacecraft hardware passing directly over Canton, NC — where Clontz found the specimen (and, uneasily, too). almost directly above my house).
The “trunk,” as SpaceX refers to it, is the unpressurized tail section of the company’s Dragon spacecraft, what other aerospace manufacturers call a service module. This section carries cargo or small satellites, is equipped with solar panels that power Dragon when the craft is in flight or docked to the ISS, and has fins for aerodynamic control during an emergency abort.
While the Dragon capsules make their way back to Earth safely in a controlled descent that ultimately slows down a parachute, “the spacecraft’s core is attached to Dragon until shortly before re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere,” SpaceX wrote on their website, after which it is jettisoned.
Moreover, it appears that not only can these trunks remain in orbit for weeks longer than the host capsules, but large pieces of them can also remain intact after re-entering the atmosphere. The world.
“When SpaceX Dragon trunk debris from the Crew-7 mission was found in North Carolina, after debris from the Ax-3 trunk in Saskatchewan and from the Crew-1 trunk in Australia, it is clear that the materials from the trunk survive regular re-entry. in large chunks,” McDowell wrote on X in May referring to two other similar pieces of debris found in Saskatchewan, Canada in May 2024 and in the Australian outback in August 2022.
SpaceX has finally sent a team to investigate the Australian debris fall, a senior director of SpaceX’s human spaceflight program said after the event.
But SpaceX has yet to contact the Glamping Collective about the alleged debris, a manager at the site told Space.com.
RELATED STORIES:
— Potential SpaceX debris falls in Australia from Crew-1 Dragon spacecraft
— Debris from a SpaceX Dragon “trunk” may have crashed into a Canadian farmer’s field (photos)
— SpaceX argues to the FAA that its re-entry Starlink satellites could injure or kill people
Despite the alarming nature of these findings, there is no need to panic. According to the Aerospace Corporation, the chance of being hit and injured by space debris is less than one in one trillion, far less than the risk of being struck by lightning or even stolen by a shark.
Clontz acknowledges the rarity of the find, and said it doesn’t bother the wrecker to worry about any other pieces of junk falling nearby. “I have peeked up in the sky a few times today,” he said, laughing. “But it doesn’t scare me. I mean, how many planes fly over every day? How many satellites are up there in orbit?”
The Glamping Collective plans to build a display case for the debris along the trail where it was found.
