Prof. Sam Lawler
Required apology is the clear frontrunner already. I can imagine how hilarious this will be... "Ok, guys, I have some delicious donuts here, but do you have something you want to say first? Perhaps say it to the TV camera over there?"
(But yes, odds are they are low-level SpaceX employees who drew the short straw and had to travel to the middle of nowhere to pick up garbage, I probably am not mean enough to withhold donuts. But we'll see how obnoxiously tech-bro they are in person...)
Prof. Sam Lawler
IT WAS A UHAUL
I CANNOT MAKE THIS STUFF UP
Prof. Sam Lawler
THAT WAS INCREDIBLE
ok I'll try to tone down the all caps but I'm really excited
That was so much better than I was even imagining...now I'm sitting in a library so maybe I can write it all out and share some photos. WOW.
There were journalists from Global News Regina, CBC Saskatchewan, 980 CJME, CTV Regina, the Canadian Press, CTV National, and the Ituna Times
Prof. Sam Lawler
I brought donuts and set them up on the back of some giant farm truck. It felt like a party!
Barry had a whole bunch of family and neighbours there, and all the reporters were all excited and chatting.
I had passed a Uhaul pulled over on the side of the dirt road to the farm and I thought that had to be the SpaceX people. It's so unlikely anyone else would have a Uhaul way out in the middle of nowhere like that.
We all chatted and waited for them to navigate the muddy road in the Uhaul.
Prof. Sam Lawler
Barry had his neighbour bring over the terrifyingly huge piece he found for a great photo op for all the journalists. That particular piece was 9 feet long, weighed 80 pounds, and was shaped like a freaking spear. It is shocking to think about that falling at terminal velocity.
I am grinning like an idiot because I was REALLY excited.
There was about 250 lbs of junk here. SpaceX has never shared how much a Crew Dragon Trunk weighs, I'd guess this is a significant fraction!
Prof. Sam Lawler
Then the Uhaul arrived! There were 2 very young, very nervous looking engineers who got out and walked over to face the throng of reporters.
I had hoped they'd actually be chatty, but of course they weren't. They wouldn't even admit they were from SpaceX at first! It wasn't until the whole pack of journalists followed them across the yard asking questions that they finally admitted they were SpaceX employees. (Thanks, journalists!!)
Prof. Sam Lawler
The reporters were amazing! They shamelessly recorded as the SpaceX guys opened up the Uhaul, put on gloves, and picked up each piece one by one to load in the back (some of the pieces required both of them working together). They kept also asking questions, which were completely ignored.
It was SO AWKWARD.
Prof. Sam Lawler
So, once they were done loading, I decided to make it even more awkward by walking into the clump of reporters with the box of donuts, invitingly open. I asked nicely if they'd like any, and that broke through the ice just a little bit. They both smiled tentatively at me.
One of the journalists behind me said "It's ok, she's not a journalist, you can trust her!"
And I said, "Nope, I'm an astronomer" and I'm pretty sure my innocent smile turned positively evil.
They did not take any donuts.
Prof. Sam Lawler
At this point, the engineers were obviously trying to escape into a side room with Barry, away from the reporters.
I quickly tried to get in my one question "How much do these trunks weigh? That info isn't public" and they smiled at me and didn't answer.
I followed along as they walked to the side door with Barry and asked if they were worried about taking it across the border. One of them looked nervously at the Uhaul, smiled nervously, and walked away. Well, I tried.
Prof. Sam Lawler
Then while they negotiated with Barry, it was time for a proper media scrum. This was pretty fun, actually, especially since I was so pumped up at this point (I was actually jumping up and down with excitement more than once as I watched reporters following the poor SpaceX dudes around). The reporters were all having a great time and happily chatting with each other. Very good vibes.
Special highlight, one of the local reporters took Astro 101 from me my first year teaching here!
Prof. Sam Lawler
Shout out to the lovely snuggly farm cat who rubbed on everyone's legs, graciously accepted pats, and then curled up for a nap on very expensive recording equipment.
Prof. Sam Lawler
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 there, but I did my best here, and I'll keep fighting!)
Donuts, Uhauls, snuggly farm cats, and international law. Wow.
Prof. Sam Lawler
Everyone filmed the Uhaul driving off once the engineers were done with their private chat with Barry, then it was time to media scrum with Barry (hats off to this guy! It took me years of practice to be comfortable with this kind of interview, and he just waltzed into it. Well done, sir! Farmers are just good at everything).
Then all the reporters gradually packed up, many writing portions of their articles on their phones while packing (impressive!), and some took a donut for the road.
Prof. Sam Lawler
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.
Coles Street Pothole
@sundogplanets
This is FUCKING AMAZING. And to think we got to see this unfold on Mastodon-dot-com. 😆
If SpaceX had any game, the pickup crew would have been wearing MIB suits and glasses and driving matte black Cybertrucks with tinted windows. I'd still hate them, but would have to respect their style.
Prof. Sam Lawler
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
Prof. Sam Lawler
THIS IS IT!! THIS IS THE BEST ONE! WATCH THIS ONE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p48yz7VXMqg
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.
Prof. Sam Lawler
Bø!rge
@ColesStreetPothole @sundogplanets Yes, but how would they pick up the space junk? There's no room in a Cybertruck. 😂
Prof. Sam Lawler
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.
Prof. Sam Lawler
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.
Prof. Sam Lawler
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!
Prof. Sam Lawler
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
Prof. Sam Lawler
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)
Prof. Sam Lawler
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.
Prof. Sam Lawler
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?
Prof. Sam Lawler
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.
Prof. Sam Lawler
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.
Prof. Sam Lawler
...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
Prof. Sam Lawler
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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