It was a moment made in history Tuesday morning. Space junk that landed near Ituna, Sask. earlier this year was collected Tuesday by two men who identified themselves as employees of SpaceX. "It's very cool that this was in space,” said Samantha Lawler, an associate professor of astronomy at the University of Regina. At least eight pieces from five different farms, all within a 30 mile radius, were collected by the team and loaded into a U-Haul truck. Some of the pieces stood over six feet tall and weighed over 100 pounds. Farmer Barry Sawchuk said the space junk that landed on his farm weighed 246 pounds. The pieces are believed to be a part of the truck of SpaceX Dragon Capsule that launched on Feb. 9 with the debris then making landfall on Feb. 26. "SpaceX has over 6,000 Starlink satellites in orbit that they claim will burn up completely when they re-enter," Lawler explained. "That comes to 23 re-entries per-day when they are at full capacity. If those re-entries are all making it to the ground, dropping hundred pound pieces of garbage, that will kill lots of people." The first piece was found on Sawchuk’s farm at the end of April. He said he never could have expected this to happen. "It’s community. It’s our little community and getting together with everybody and now we have a photo op for a once in a lifetime thing,” he said. The employees did not confirm where the pieces were being transported to. They only confirmed they were being taken back to their offices. Sawchuk said he was compensated from SpaceX. He plans to donate the money to the community ice rink in Ituna. The employees did not make any comments to media.
