I am talking o a reporter about this in a couple hours: https://regina.ctvnews.ca/from-outer-space-sask-farmers-baffled-after-discovering-strange-wreckage-in-field-1.6880353
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
I brought donuts and set them up on the back of some giant farm truck. It felt like a party!
Barry had a whole bunch of family and neighbours there, and all the reporters were all excited and chatting.
I had passed a Uhaul pulled over on the side of the dirt road to the farm and I thought that had to be the SpaceX people. It's so unlikely anyone else would have a Uhaul way out in the middle of nowhere like that.
We all chatted and waited for them to navigate the muddy road in the Uhaul.
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
Barry had his neighbour bring over the terrifyingly huge piece he found for a great photo op for all the journalists. That particular piece was 9 feet long, weighed 80 pounds, and was shaped like a freaking spear. It is shocking to think about that falling at terminal velocity.
I am grinning like an idiot because I was REALLY excited.
There was about 250 lbs of junk here. SpaceX has never shared how much a Crew Dragon Trunk weighs, I'd guess this is a significant fraction!
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
Then the Uhaul arrived! There were 2 very young, very nervous looking engineers who got out and walked over to face the throng of reporters.
I had hoped they'd actually be chatty, but of course they weren't. They wouldn't even admit they were from SpaceX at first! It wasn't until the whole pack of journalists followed them across the yard asking questions that they finally admitted they were SpaceX employees. (Thanks, journalists!!)
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
The reporters were amazing! They shamelessly recorded as the SpaceX guys opened up the Uhaul, put on gloves, and picked up each piece one by one to load in the back (some of the pieces required both of them working together). They kept also asking questions, which were completely ignored.
It was SO AWKWARD.
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
So, once they were done loading, I decided to make it even more awkward by walking into the clump of reporters with the box of donuts, invitingly open. I asked nicely if they'd like any, and that broke through the ice just a little bit. They both smiled tentatively at me.
One of the journalists behind me said "It's ok, she's not a journalist, you can trust her!"
And I said, "Nope, I'm an astronomer" and I'm pretty sure my innocent smile turned positively evil.
They did not take any donuts.
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
At this point, the engineers were obviously trying to escape into a side room with Barry, away from the reporters.
I quickly tried to get in my one question "How much do these trunks weigh? That info isn't public" and they smiled at me and didn't answer.
I followed along as they walked to the side door with Barry and asked if they were worried about taking it across the border. One of them looked nervously at the Uhaul, smiled nervously, and walked away. Well, I tried.
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
Then while they negotiated with Barry, it was time for a proper media scrum. This was pretty fun, actually, especially since I was so pumped up at this point (I was actually jumping up and down with excitement more than once as I watched reporters following the poor SpaceX dudes around). The reporters were all having a great time and happily chatting with each other. Very good vibes.
Special highlight, one of the local reporters took Astro 101 from me my first year teaching here!
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
Shout out to the lovely snuggly farm cat who rubbed on everyone's legs, graciously accepted pats, and then curled up for a nap on very expensive recording equipment.
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
Everyone filmed the Uhaul driving off once the engineers were done with their private chat with Barry, then it was time to media scrum with Barry (hats off to this guy! It took me years of practice to be comfortable with this kind of interview, and he just waltzed into it. Well done, sir! Farmers are just good at everything).
Then all the reporters gradually packed up, many writing portions of their articles on their phones while packing (impressive!), and some took a donut for the road.
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
So...now what?
After all that, I am really not sure if what just happened was 100% legal.
I'm not sure what Canadians are supposed to do if they find space junk.
I have a nice map of where several pieces were found (along about 50km of the projected ground track), and I'm sure more pieces will be found in the coming months/years. What are people supposed to do with them? (The SpaceX dudes did not answer that question.)
So, I'm sure this story's far from over.
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
But I'm SO HAPPY about how everything went today!
Journalists chasing down SpaceX employees on a grain farm in the middle of nowhere!
SpaceX maybe getting held accountable! (Well, big maybe, but I did my best here, and I'll keep fighting!)
Donuts, Uhauls, snuggly farm cats, and international law. Wow.
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
Well...they played Duel of the Fates just before they quoted me about SpaceX being awful on my local CBC radio station! Wowee, that was awesome. I think it's time for me to get off the computer and snuggle goats for a while.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/spacex-cbc-debris-space-junk-sask-1.7231571
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
THIS IS IT!! THIS IS THE BEST ONE! WATCH THIS ONE
They even included me trying to give them donuts and smiling evilly after saying "I'm an astronomer"
I need to give some more donuts to the Global News team. SO GOOD.
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@sundogplanets went camping last year. There wasn’t a single moment that we couldn’t see satellites zooming above us.
Completely changes how the night sky is perceived, I’m so sad for future generations to not see the untouched expansive beauty there once was.
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
Ooo nice I got angry, insulting emails from an Elon-bro (yes, multiple emails from one Elon-bro). Guess maybe these articles are reaching people?
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
Ooo this one's pretty good too, includes the cat rubbing her face on the space junk, but no mention of the donuts! https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6420052
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
It looks like maybe SpaceX has just publicly admitted (via NASA) that they have a debris problem. So much of a problem that they have set up a debris reporting hotline!! (I am sooo tempted to call it - but I'm sure they wouldn't answer any of my questions either)
I tried searching for this statement from NASA but the only source seems to be a screenshot of text on twitter (that a journalist sent me)
(...could it be a prank? That would be a *hilarious* prank)
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
Just put on my Professor Sweater (TM) to do a quick CBC interview about Starlink reentries destroying the ozone layer. I made sure to heavily reference the giant pieces of SpaceX debris that landed near me as evidence that they need better oversight and regulation.
I still don't know if this "offiical NASA statement" twitter screenshot thing is real or not, and none of my space policy friends know either! This is... so weird.
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
I finally just went ahead and emailed the reporter who posted the screenshotted text on twitter to see if he can point me to where the original official statement is posted. I am so curious to know if it's real or not... that is the ONLY public acknowledgement I've seen that the Saskatchewan space junk belongs to SpaceX.
