Space experts believe they have identified the bizarre ‘UFO’ debris discovered by a North Carolina gardener and his colleague at a luxury campsite.
Justin Clontz found the four-foot-wide panel, littered with burned and frayed carbon fibers, in the middle of a trail in the city of Canton last week.
And now an astronomer has told DailyMail.com that the mangled metal is likely pieces of a storage case from one of SpaceX’s reusable Cargo Dragon spacecraft.
“The debris matches the expected location of this return,” Smithsonian astrophysicist Dr. Jonathan McDowell to DailyMail.com, adding that he was ‘very confident’ in this assessment.
The charred black metal object – so heavy that witnesses had to drag it with a riding mower – resembles two pieces of crash debris from the Canadian province of Saskatchewan and Numbla Vale, Australia, both now known to be from SpaceX Dragons.
Astronomer Dr Jonathan McDowell has told DailyMail.com that the bizarre ‘UFO’ crash debris discovered by a North Carolina groundskeeper at a luxury campsite is pieces of a trunk from one of SpaceX’s reusable Cargo Dragon spacecraft ( up here)
Justin Clontz (above) was working grounds maintenance at Glamping Collective, a luxury campground in Haywood County, North Carolina, when he made the stunning discovery. he had to drag the ‘UFO’ out of the area with a lawnmower because it was so massive and heavy
‘There is a coincidence in time and place. They look similar to each other and to the Australian debris that has been confirmed to be from a dragon tribe,” Dr McDowell said.
Clontz was working grounds maintenance at Glamping Collective, a luxury campground in Haywood County, when he made the grisly discovery.
The career gardener and landscaper told the local news that he was “just shocked at what it was,” adding, “It’s a once in a lifetime thing, you know, it doesn’t happen every day.”
The carbon fiber of the UFO-like debris almost looked like some kind of strange fur, as initial reports described the now most likely identified mysterious object.
“We don’t know what it is,” Clontz said CNN earlier this month. “We just know it doesn’t come from here.”
Although this piece of SpaceX debris fell safely about half a mile away on a secluded path on the Glamping property, Dr. McDowell notes that both government and private space programs have become remarkably lax with their space junk in recent years.
Although this piece of SpaceX debris fell safely about a half mile away on a remote forest trail, Dr. McDowell noted that both government and private space programs have become remarkably lax with their space debris in recent years. Above, the open trunk of a SpaceX Cargo Dragon craft
SpaceX’s Dragon ‘trunk’ has more than 350 cubic meters of internal storage space, with an expansion option that expands capacity to more than 1,200 cubic meters of storage space. This cargo container comes with mounted radiators that help regulate the temperature of sensitive items
“The risk to life and property is quite small – because Earth is a large target and usually not covered with people – but it is not small,” Dr. McDowell wrote via email.
“We’ve seen some close shaves,” he said.
Dr. McDowell’s work, which includes collecting and analyzing data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray telescope observatory and other space-based astronomy platforms, often involves paying some attention to space traffic in Earth’s orbit.
“The government is also taking unwarranted risks,” said Dr. McDowell, who publishes a monthly newsletter on space launches, “as evidenced by the incident in Florida earlier this year when a piece of the ISS came through the roof of someone’s house.”
The incident in March this year involved a 5,800-pound battery pallet that ended up in a Florida home. It was later confirmed that the heavy metal object was discarded by the International Space Station (ISS) in 2021.
“The risk to life and property is quite small – because Earth is a large target and not usually covered in people – but it is not small,” Dr. wrote. McDowell via email about the SpaceX crash
Dr. McDowell’s work, involving NASA’s Chandra X-ray Telescope Observatory and other space-based astronomy platforms, often involves paying some attention to space traffic in Earth’s orbit. Above, another close-up of the SpaceX debris in North Carolina
Homeowner Alejandro Otero of Naples was on vacation when he received a call from his son, who said he heard a “great noise” and that there were gaping holes in the ceiling and floor. Otero’s son told him that what fell almost hit him.
SpaceX has not yet confirmed whether the object found in Canada earlier this year, or the object in North Carolina, was debris from their spacecraft.
But tracking the ground of a SpaceX Dragon “trunk” that made its return in February would indicate that both objects emerged from the trunk as it burned up in the hot friction of its descent back to Earth.
Dr. McDowell said Space.com that the most likely locations for debris from this descent could include U.S. states from Tennessee to Virginia and West Virginia, but North Carolina was certainly within the realm of possibility.
Clontz had to improvise to drag this apparent fuselage panel from the trunk of the SpaceX Dragon out of the path because it was so massive: ‘I just tied a rope to it and drugged it out with a lawnmower’
Above, more details of the futuristic SpaceX trunk panel, covered in burnt and frayed carbon fibers, bolted between heavy metal plates
SpaceX’s Dragon ‘trunk’ has more than 350 cubic feet of internal storage space, with an expansion option that expands capacity to more than 1,200 cubic feet.
This cargo container comes with mounted radiators – electrical and fluid connections that allow the internal temperature of this storage space to be regulated to accommodate a variety of sensitive payloads, including small satellites that can be released into orbit.
Clontz had to improvise to drag this apparent fuselage panel from the trunk of the SpaceX Dragon out of his walking area because it was so enormous.
“I just tied a rope to it and drugged it out with a lawn mower,” Clontz explained WLOS.
He added that the ‘UFO’ landed perfectly in the center of the path and that none of the trees or leaves looked as if they had caught fire during the crash.
No one had even heard the object land, he told reporters, which surprised him given its size and weight.
“There’s a one in a million chance that it will land, especially if it lands somewhere off the trail in the woods, you would never have found it,” he told the local news crew, “but it just happened to land on the trail.” ‘