Space debris from a SpaceX rocket landed on a sheep paddock in Australia. But don’t worry — no sheep were harmed.
The Australian Space Agency confirmed that the space junk found in the New South Wales Snowy Mountains came from a SpaceX mission, Australian Broadcasting Corporation News reported.
The confirmation comes nearly a month after people in the region heard a “large bang,” a result of the debris falling and causing a sonic boom on July 9, per Newsweek.
Sheep farmer Mick Miners then discovered a 10-foot charred object on his farm. Two other pieces of space debris were also found in the area.
“I didn’t know what to think, I had no idea what it was,” Miners said, according to ABC News.
Experts from the Australian Space Agency visited the rural area to examine the objects.
“The Agency has confirmed the debris is from a SpaceX mission and continues to engage with our counterparts in the U.S., as well as other parts of the Commonwealth and local authorities as appropriate,” a spokesperson for the agency said, according to Newsweek.
I just got back from Dalgety, NSW. I was busy confirming that parts of a @SpaceX Crew-1 Trunk capsule crashed into a few paddocks in rural NSW! More info to come:https://t.co/2VJzeYMhhn pic.twitter.com/sQsE4WAxRq
— Brad Tucker (@btucker22) July 29, 2022
The space debris is the “largest recorded piece of space junk” to land in Australia since 1979 when Skylab, the giant 69-metric ton U.S. space station, fell to earth, LiveScience reported.