NASA and SpaceX Underestimated the Risks of Reentering Space Debris

Since the start of this year, landowners have found several pieces of space debris linked to missions supporting the International Space Station. Engineers had believed that none of the disposable hardware would survive the intense heat of reentry and reach Earth’s surface.

These incidents underscore the need for more research into what happens when a spacecraft reenters the atmosphere uncontrollably, according to engineers from the Aerospace Corporation, a research center funded by the government and based in El Segundo, California. More objects are being launched into space than ever before, and this trend is expected to continue as companies deploy more satellite networks and launch heavier rockets.

“The most urgent need right now is to do more work to fully understand this process and to be prepared to handle new materials and new operational methods as they develop more quickly,” said Marlon Sorge, executive director of Aerospace’s Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies. “Clearly, that’s the direction spaceflight is heading.”

Ideally, a satellite or rocket at the end of its life could be directed to reenter the atmosphere in a controlled manner over a remote part of the ocean. However, this is often too expensive because it would require carrying extra fuel for the de-orbit maneuvers, and many spacecraft do not have rocket thrusters at all.

In March, a piece of a battery pack ejected from the space station made a hole in the roof of a house in Florida, a rare case of property damage caused by space debris. In May, a 90-pound chunk of a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that left the International Space Station fell on the property of a “glamping” resort in North Carolina. Around the same time, a homeowner in a nearby town found a smaller piece of material that also seemed to be from the same Dragon mission.

These events came after the discovery in April of another nearly 90-pound piece of debris from a Dragon capsule on a farm in Saskatchewan, Canada. NASA and SpaceX later determined that the debris fell from orbit in February, and earlier this month, SpaceX employees went to the farm to retrieve the wreckage, according to CBC.

Pieces of a Dragon spacecraft also fell over Colorado last year, and a farmer in Australia found debris from a Dragon capsule on his land in 2022.