Shepherd’s Pie In the Sky

A sheep farmer in New South Wales, Australia, made a strange and improbable discovery: a large, blackened hunk of mechanical junk wedged into a remote corner of his paddock.

The object’s charred appearance and accessory, high-tech bits and bobs suggested it might have made its way Earthward from space, and endured a scorching descent through miles of atmosphere.

Theories pertaining to the object’s origin and purpose descended with equal fire and fury from experts and neophytes alike, many of whom posited the seven-plus-foot-long enigma was a jettisoned former piece of a SpaceX vessel.

Prevailing theories allege the piece is a remnant of SpaceX's November 2020 inaugural first crewed flight of its Crew-1 Dragon capsule. SpaceX has yet to confirm the hypothesis, but that hasn’t kept the notion from gaining traction.

Brad Tucker, an astronomy research fellow at the Australian National University tweeted: "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."

Tucker highlighted the charring on the debris, "which you would expect from re-entry," he told Australian news sources. "It is very rare to see, because they don't usually land on land, but in the ocean."

According to Tucker, the debris likely came from the unpressurized portion of Crew Dragon, and is potentially the biggest piece of space junk to rain down on the antipodes since a section of NASA’s Skylab turned up near Esperance, Western Australia in 1979.

In a follow-up tweet, Tucker stated that the trunk of SpaceX’s Crew-1 spacecraft "was jettisoned and stayed in orbit until re-entering on 9 July."

Swinburne University of Technology astronomer Rebecca Allen remarked: “Pieces like this one are designed to mostly burn up in the atmosphere. This is quite worrying, and shows it's critical to track debris."

News of the Australian incident comes as astronomers track a massive piece of a Chinese Long March 5B rocket, which is predicted to make its uncontrolled descent through the atmosphere this weekend—the latest in a series of uncontrolled reentries of Chinese launch vehicles.

The bizarre object's impromptu appearance caught locals off guard.

Sheep farm owner Mick Miners admitted to interviewers that he didn’t know what to make of the Wilt Chamberlain-sized piece of space-jetsam come crashing down onto his land.

Neighboring farmer Jock Wallace added: "I didn't hear the bang, but my daughters said it was very loud.”

Mister Wallace pointed out the dangers inherent massive pieces of intact space junk dropping willy-nilly through the atmosphere. "I think it's a concern it's just fallen out of the sky," he opined. "If it landed on your house, it would make a hell of a mess.”

FMI: www.spacex.com