Experts have confirmed that the debris found in New South Wales came from a spacecraft built by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company.
People have also been warned by Australian officials not to “try” to handle other debris that could be from the vessel, amid predictions that “more items could still be found”.
Two farmers discovered what appeared to be space equipment scattered across their sheep pastures.
The Australian Space Agency (ASA) confirmed the debris in the Snowy Mountains came from a SpaceX mission after conducting an investigation, ABC reported.
Two pieces were analyzed, while experts are also aware of a third object found in the region.
ASA said it had “confirmed that the debris is from a SpaceX mission and continues to work with our counterparts in the US” along with other authorities “if appropriate”.
A spokesperson added: “The agency operates under the Australian Government Space Re-entry Debris Plan, which outlines the roles and responsibilities for key Australian government agencies and committees in supporting the response to debris re-entry into space.
“If the community sees any more suspected debris, they should not attempt to handle or retrieve it.”
Image: Photo: Brad Tucker
People have been told to contact a SpaceX hotline for debris or email recovery@spacex.com.
dr. Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist at the Australian National University, told Sky News before ASA’s confirmation of how he believed the debris came from a SpaceX capsule.
“After inspection, you can see scorching patterns,” said Dr. Tucker, who added that the “composition of the object matches that of space equipment”.
