2nd piece of space junk landed on Saskatchewan farmland in 2024

Scott Larson · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 06, 2025 8:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

Space junk rained down connected Saskatchewan farmland doubly successful 2024, and nary 1 seems capable to explicate wherefore the debris failed to pain up successful the atmosphere.

Last April, Saskatchewan husbandman Barry Sawchuk found a large chunk of abstraction debris connected his onshore adjacent Ituna, conscionable westbound of Yorkton, that turned retired to beryllium portion of a Space X rocket. 

The 2nd clip was connected Dan Kennedy's farm, astir 15 kilometres southeast of Hodgeville, Sask. Kennedy's son, Travis, recovered the panel, which is astir the size of a laptop computer, past August.

"He was combining fields of lentils connected our onshore and conscionable came crossed this entity successful the field, got retired and stopped and realized that wasn't mean and looked similar thing that fell from the sky," Kennedy said.

He estimates the debris fell sometime betwixt erstwhile helium sprayed the tract connected Aug. 6 and Aug. 16 erstwhile his lad ran the combine.

"The portion was astir 18 inches wide and astir 24 inches tall," Kennedy said. "It benignant of looked similar a power committee that looked to beryllium immoderate programming worldly that mightiness person gone done this board."

A person of Kennedy's who erstwhile worked astatine SED Systems — a communications institution located connected the University of Saskatchewan field — tracked down a telephone fig for Space X successful California.

Kennedy said helium texted backmost and distant with idiosyncratic astatine Space X who requested that helium nonstop the portion backmost to them, "so we conscionable sent it backmost to California, to SpaceX."

Kennedy says the institution owned by U.S. billionaire Elon Musk sent him a cheque for $3,900 US for returning the debris.

The debris recovered connected Kennedy's workplace came from a Starlink satellite, says Samantha Lawler, an subordinate prof of astronomy astatine the University of Regina.

Lawler says determination are much than 7,000 Starlink satellites presently successful orbit, and it's concerning that this junk isn't burning up during re-entry to the atmosphere.

"If they are dropping pieces of junk connected america that's a truly large problem, particularly due to the fact that present successful confederate Canada we are benignant of nether the densest set of them," Lawler said.

With truthful galore satellites successful little orbit new rules connected however to dispose of them are needed due to the fact that adjacent burning up successful the ambiance doesn't destruct a problem, Lawler said: "It's adding each of this metallic to the precocious ambiance … but pieces making it to the crushed is really, truly rather scary,"