With more rockets launching each year, there’s more risk of falling debris causing damage — or hitting someone

In March 2022, a couple living in the rural town of São Mateus do Sul, Brazil, were shocked to find a 600-kilogram piece of smashed metal lying just 50 metres from their home.

Four months later, two Australian sheep farmers found a strange, black object that appeared to have embedded itself in a field.

Then last week, a farmer in Ituna, Sask., found a similar object in his wheat field.

Alien invasion? Nope. All pieces of SpaceX debris that had fallen from the sky.

Part of that may be explained by the materials used in the rockets — like carbon fibre, which was used in that SpaceX trunk. While aluminum will burn up fairly well, carbon fibre doesn’t.

This isn’t just a SpaceX problem. In 2023, a massive cylindrical object washed up on shore in Western Australia. The Australian Space Agency reported that it was part of a launch vehicle from India’s space agency.

There have also been incidents involving space junk from China. In 2007, a plane narrowly avoided being hit by Russian space debris. And last month, a piece of space junk from the ISS that was expected to burn up ended up slamming through the roof and two floors of a Florida home.

And that’s what’s most concerning: that one day debris will hit a plane or someone on the ground.