A hunk of Elon Musk's SpaceX junk that landed in two farmers' gardens could be worth millions—if they're allowed to sell it on.
Australian sheep farmer Mick Miners awoke to a bang after a huge bit of space debris crashed onto his land at 15,000mph, while his neighbour Jock Wallace found a similarly sized piece of junk.
The debris has been independently verified as coming from the SpaceX Crew-1 capsule, the first to be launched by Elon Musk's space company. It cost around £31m per launch.
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Local authorities have said that the farmers can keep the junk on their land until SpaceX retrieves it—if they retrieve it.
If SpaceX doesn't bother to claim it, it could be finders keepers for Miners and his neighbour, who could make serious bank auctioning off the junk to a museum or a space enthusiast.
Brad Tucker, a researcher at the Australian National University, confirmed it was space junk from SpaceX.
"Now if SpaceX said they want it back, well then they have to essentially pay Mick and Jock to get it all back. However, if they are able to keep it, they have options including giving it to a museum, selling it on eBay."
He told a radio host on Monday: "The Australian Space Agency is now handling it because there is actually a legal protocol… so technically it's still SpaceX's.
"We assume they don't want it back because the whole point was to break it in the ocean.
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Farmer Mick Miners, who lives near Australia's snowy mountains explained his shock at the discovery and said: "I didn't hear the bang, but my daughters said it was very loud.
"I think it's a concern it's just fallen out of the sky.
"If it landed on your house it would make a hell of a mess."
He added: "I'm a farmer from Dalgety, what am I going to say to NASA?"
Space debris is becoming an increasing problem. Last week, an 'out of control' Chinese space rocket crash landed on Earth after being let go again.
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