It was discovered recently that a large piece of a SpaceX capsule had crash landed in a field belonging to a farmer in New South Wales, Australia.
The object, which was sat vertically out of the ground and was black in colour, reportedly landed on the 9th July but was not discovered until weeks later by the farmer, and two other pieces were found nearby.
As a result of this, the Australian Space Agency (ASA) put out a request to contact the debris hotline that SpaceX set up in the event that further pieces are located in the area.
The large majority of space debris that lands back on Earth falls into the oceans, however there are cases of pieces falling on land, including when a person was hit by a piece of debris in Oklahoma, US in 1997 and when there was building damage by a piece of a Chinese rocket in Ivory Coast in 2020.
There is a warning however that this type of occurrence may become more frequent, with a greater number of launches across the globe and with The Sun moving into a more active cycle which can lead to a greater number of pieces of debris falling to Earth.
SpaceX has yet to respond to the finding.
Source: BBC | Image via ABC South East NSW: Adriane Reardon