NASA explains debris slamming North Carolina mountain resort from space

Space junk made a crash landing in a land of North Carolina luxury. 

A landscaping crew working at The Glamping Collective, a mountaintop resort near Asheville in Haywood County, found a large mysterious object on May 22 that NASA confirmed is a piece of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule that reached the International Space Station (ISS) in 2023. 

There was one large piece – about the size of a standard car hood and covered in a carbon fiber weave – found on a hiking trail, and several other smaller pieces fell in the backyards of nearby homes, according to a report by Space.com. 

The objects were from the “Dragon spacecraft trunk hardware” that was “predicted to burn up fully,” ABC 13 in North Carolina reported.

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Other pieces of the Elon Musk-funded SpaceX‘s capsule were found in Canada in February and more recently in Saudi Arabia around the time the piece in North Carolina was located, NASA said in its statement. 

“NASA is unaware of any structural damage or injuries resulting from these findings,” the space agency said in its statement. 

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A Florida family had a similar, albeit a much scarier, run-in with space junk that didn’t burn up as expected.

In March, a 1.6-pound metal alloy object burrowed through the roof and two floors of a Naples, Florida, home while a family member was inside.

The homeowner, Alejandro Otero, said on X that it, “Tore through the roof and went thru (sic) 2 floors. Almost his (sic) my son.”

Just like the object that crashed in North Carolina, the object that hit the Otero family’s home was supposed to “heat up and break apart during atmospheric re-entry,” NASA told Fox News Digital in a previous email.

No one was hurt in either situation, but the Otero family’s lawyer, Mica Nguyen Worthy, said, “A ‘near miss’ situation such as this could have been catastrophic.

“Space debris is a real and serious issue because of the increase in space traffic in recent years,” Worthy said.

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NASA said it’s performing a “detailed investigation of the jettison and re-entry analysis to determine the cause of the debris survival and to update modeling and analysis.” 

“NASA remains committed to responsibly operating in low Earth orbit, and mitigating as much risk as possible to protect people on Earth when space hardware must be released.”

To further Worthy’s point, a defunct Russian satellite imploded near the ISS last week, prompting a brief discussion during Friday’s teleconference with NASA and Boeing officials. 

The teleconference with reporters was largely focused on Starliner’s helium leaks and faulty thrusters, but officials expressed little concern that the satellite debris would reach Earth. 

The threat was avoided after the pieces missed the ISS. 

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The resort marketed the space debris as an attraction. 

“We invite you to come experience this yourself! Starting Monday June 3rd,” the resort said on its website. “We will have the space debris on display for your viewing at the start of our Sunset Summit Trail!”

The Florida family took a more stern approach to the object that hit their house. 

Worthy filed a claim to NASA on behalf of the Otero family and said this is an opportunity for NASA to “set a precedent as to what responsible, safe, and sustainable space operations ought to look like.”

“If the incident had happened overseas, and someone in another country were damaged by the same space debris as in the Oteros’ case, the U.S. would have been absolutely liable to pay for those damages.”

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She implored NASA and the U.S. government to follow the same legal principle.

NASA declined to comment on pending legal action.