NASA reveals origins of bizarre 'furry UFO' that mysteriously slammed into luxury North Carolina mountaintop resort
Falling 'space junk' has been unmasked as the culprit behind a bizarre UFO sighting this past May, which saw a large mysterious object fall from the sky onto a mountaintop resort.
A landscaping crew working The Glamping Collective in North Carolina made the bewildering discovery, which for weeks left residents at a loss.
The giant, foreign-looking object looked decidedly mechanical, but also appeared to covered in a strange material that appeared akin to fur.
Those were actually frayed carbon fibers, a fact already aired to DailyMail.com by Smithsonian astrophysicist Dr Jonathan McDowell days after the find.
Days ago, NASA confirmed the debris was actually part of a SpaceX satellite - the firm's Crew Dragon capsule that reached the International Space Station in 2023.
Falling 'space junk' has been unmasked as the culprit behind a bizarre UFO sighting this past May, which saw a large mysterious object fall from the sky onto a mountaintop resort. The giant, foreign-looking object looked decidedly mechanical, but also appeared to covered in a strange material that appeared akin to fur.
NASA confirmed the debris was actually part of a SpaceX satellite - the firm's Crew Dragon capsule that reached the International Space Station in 2023. In this image from April 2021, the SpaceX Crew Dragon is seen approaching the International Space Station for docking
'SpaceX has confirmed the re-entry of Dragon spacecraft trunk hardware to NASA following its service missions to the International Space Station,' the June 20 news release said.
'During its initial design, the Dragon spacecraft trunk was evaluated for re-entry breakup and was predicted to burn up fully.
'The information from the debris recovery provides an opportunity for teams to improve debris modeling,' the statement went on.
'NASA and SpaceX will continue exploring additional solutions as we learn from the discovered debris.'
In a follow-up statement issued Friday, June 21, the space agency added; 'Most recently, the trunks that supported SpaceX's 30th commercial services resupply and Crew-7 missions re-entered over Saudi Arabia and North Carolina, respectively.'
'NASA is unaware of any structural damage or injuries resulting from these findings,' the statement went on, as thee other residents of the area reported to ABC 13 how they also stumbled upon fallen debris believed to be from space.
One piece was three feet high, and so heavy it had to be carried out using a lawn mower, one citizen said.
Two smaller objects were found by residents in nearby Franklin and Jackson County, a few miles from the luxury resort in Haywood County.
A landscaping crew working The Glamping Collective in North Carolina (seen here) made the bewildering discovery, which for weeks left residents at a loss
Astronomer Dr Jonathan McDowell already told DailyMail.com that the bizarre 'UFO' crash debris was from one of SpaceX 's reusable Cargo Dragon spacecraft (above) - a prediction now proven to be correct
Justin Clontz (above) was working grounds maintenance at Glamping Collective, a luxury campsite in Haywood County, North Carolina when he made the bewildering discovery. he had to tow the 'UFO' out of the area with a riding lawnmower because it was so massive and heavy
The big piece was found on a hiking trail, and several other smaller pieces fell in the backyards of nearby homes, people told Space.com.
Officials in the new update said the debris was expected to burn up upon re-entry, but several turned up in tatters instead.
The so-called furry object was one of them - something McDowell already predicted with to DailyMail.com.
At the time, he added how he was 'very confident' in this assessment, stating 'We have coincidence in time and place.
Comparing it to similar debris found in Australia and other parts of the world like Saufia Arabia and Canada, he went on to accurately predict it was 'a Dragon trunk.'
'The debris matches the expected location of these reentries,' McDowell told DailyMail.com.
Days before, Clontz was working on grounds maintenance at the luxury campsite when he made the eerie discovery, after which told local news he was 'just shocked as to what it was.'
He said at the time: 'It's once in a lifetime, you know, it don't happen every day.'
As mentioned, the UFO-like debris' carbon fiber appeared to sport some kind of weird fur, as initial reports described the now very likely identified mystery object.
'We don't know what it is,' Clontz told local news earlier this month. 'We just know that it's not from up here.'
Although this piece of SpaceX debris fell safely about a half-mile down a remote trail on Glamping's property, Dr McDowell noted that both governmental and private space programs have become dangerously lax with their space junk in recent years.
Although this piece of SpaceX debris fell safely about a half-mile down a remote forest trail, Dr McDowell noted that both governmental and private space programs have become notably lax with their space junk in recent years. Above, the open trunk of a SpaceX Cargo Dragon craft
SpaceX's Dragon 'trunk' has storage space of over 350 cubic-feet internally, with an extender option that expands its capacity to over 1200 cubic-feet of storage space. This cargo container comes with mounted radiators that help it regulate the temperature of sensitive items
'The risk to life and property is fairly small — because the Earth is a big target and is mostly not covered with people — but it's not tiny,' Dr McDowell wrote via email.
'We have seen some close shaves,' he said.
Dr McDowell's work, which involves collecting and analyzing data from NASA's Chandra X-ray telescope observatory and other space-based astronomy platforms, often includes paying some attention to space traffic in Earth's orbit.
'The government is also taking unwarranted risks,' noted Dr McDowell, who publishes a monthly newsletter on space launches, 'as shown by the incident in Florida earlier this year when a bit of ISS came through the roof of someone's house.'
That incident, this March, involved a 5,800-pound battery pallet plunging into a Florida home. The heavy metal object was later confirmed to have been discarded by the International Space Station (ISS) in 2021.
'The risk to life and property is fairly small - because the Earth is a big target and is mostly not covered with people - but it's not tiny,' Dr McDowell wrote via email about the SpaceX crash
Dr McDowell's work, which has involved NASA's Chandra X-ray telescope observatory and other space-based astronomy platforms, often includes paying some attention to the space traffic in Earth's orbit. Above, another close-up of the SpaceX debris in North Carolina
Meanwhile, back in March, a theoretical paper argued that atmospheric metal pollution from defunct satellites like those owned by Elon Mus's SpaceX could create an invisible shield around our planet that could weaken its magnetic field.
The controversial paper was penned by Seattle based scientist Sierra Solter-Hunt, and claimed falling space junk like the frayed part found in May could very well weaken our magnetosphere.
It cites specific satellite 'megaconstellations' like SpaceX's Starlink network, which may generate enough magnetic dust to cut our planet's protective shield in half, but spurred some skepticism from experts.
In the worst-case scenario, the so-called 'Spacecraft dust' could lead to satellite disasters as well 'atmospheric stripping,' the author told Live Science - a phenomenon where increased levels of radiation could begin to blow away the outer edges of our atmosphere.
The has already occurred naturally on planets like Mars and Mercury, the paper points out, making them especially uninhabitable.
