Earlier this year, massive debris from the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft that recently returned four astronauts from the International Space Station unexpectedly crashed onto a farm in rural Saskatchewan, Canada. The farmer put these debris up for sale, promising to donate the proceeds to the development of a local hockey rink, and SpaceX bought them.
Farmer Barry Savchuk, who discovered space debris, will now be able to fulfill his promise. SpaceX representatives arrived at his farm in a U-Haul truck to collect space debris. Although they didn't reveal any details during their visit, Savchuk was delighted with the result.
We got something for the rink in Itun, and it's something we've always dreamed of, – said Barry.
The Space Debris Problem
Savchuk is not the only farmer in the region who discovered SpaceX rocket debris on his territory. Five other local farmers found at least eight pieces of space debris scattered across an area northeast of Saskatchewan's capital city of Regina.
Although the rocket is designed to break up on reentry, some parts have a non-zero chance of surviving the trip to Earth. This causes experts to worry about the safety and future consequences that falling space debris can cause.
Not so long ago, a piece of space debris, which before that was a load of used batteries from the ISS, broke through the roof of a US resident. According to the plan, they were supposed to be thrown into space, after which the pallet with batteries was supposed to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.
Everything went according to plan except for the last moment – part of the cargo survived, flew to Earth and damaged the house. At the same time, no fatalities have yet been recorded, but there have been many stories on the brink that almost ended in disaster.