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
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.
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
The reporter emailed me back! It's a screenshot of an email that NASA public affairs sent to him.
So, except for the Australia junk in 2022, SpaceX has still not publicly admitted to any of the Crew Dragon trunk debris falls. But apparently NASA thinks they have admitted to all of it. INTERESTING.
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
Hey, finally made it into an American news story! So far, SpaceX has not contacted the people in North Carolina who found SpaceX debris. Interesting. I hope that news stories like this will push them to take some responsibility here!
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
This is the best way possible to (maybe?) end this epic thread!
Here is the story of the Saskatchewan SpaceX debris fall, written by me, published by Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/spacex-dropped-space-junk-on-my-neighbors-farm-heres-what-happened-next/
Many of you got to see this story unfold in real-time toots, but this is the whole thing, plus some extra science context. Extra special thank you to @NicoleCRust and @laurahelmuth for encouraging me to pitch the story to SciAm! I am so excited to publish in a magazine I read all the time as a kid.
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
...of course, it would sure be nice to publish an article in Scientific American about my actual research, rather than the garbage that gets in the way of my research. It's ok though, I'm glad to get to share this bizarre story, and the warnings it presents us.
I hope that it will make a few people think a bit harder about how we as a species are currently using outer space, and how we need to do a *much* better job on that.
Further reading suggestion: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo184287883.html
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
This video by @skrishna includes a lot of really detailed spaceflight context (both law and spacecraft design, as well as SpaceX's operating practices) which is really helpful for understanding the whole debris-fall situation I described in my SciAm article above.
If you liked my article, give this a watch!
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Prof. Sam Lawlerreplied to Prof. Sam Lawler on last edited by
Interesting. I guess all the negative press from SpaceX dumping large pieces of garbage on Saskatchewan did actually make a difference? https://spacenews.com/spacex-to-move-dragon-splashdowns-back-to-west-coast/
Of course, they still plan to dump large pieces of garbage upon reentry (plus huge amounts of atmospheric pollution on both launch and reentry), but now the garbage pieces will go directly into the ocean, far away from annoying astronomers who have lots of journalist contacts.
Sigh.
