A North Carolina man is going viral for discovering a rare piece of space debris in a field.
The object, appearing as melted material and metal, likely originated from the reentry of the SpaceX Crew-7 mission to the International Space Station, which returned to Earth on March 12, 2024.
Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics confirmed this, stating it matches the Crew-7 Dragon’s trunk reentry path. Dragon capsules return to Earth safely in controlled descents slowed by parachutes, but their trunks detach just before reentry.
Here is the reentry path indeed going just west of Asheville NC (direction of flight was to the NE) pic.twitter.com/5niV87xh51
— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) May 24, 2024
NASA has since confirmed these items are part of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
NASA advises those who find space debris not to handle or retrieve it. Instead, they should contact the SpaceX Debris Hotline at 1-866-623-0234 or email recovery@spacex.com.
There’s no word yet if NASA will request the piece from the North Carolina man.
