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Can anyone identify this piece of space junk?
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/space-debris-farm-field-1.7204312
Alain Fournier
Alain Fournier explained :
Can anyone identify this piece of space junk?
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/space-debris-farm-field-1.7204312
Alain Fournier
Well, astronomers have connected it with SpaceX. (If the "astonomers" weren't Jonathon McDowell, they were probably using his online catalog of launches and objects.)
Given that the connection is a launch in February, I'd guess it was a piece of second stage. It appears to be an insulated portion, and the exterior appears to have been dimpled (the rectangles), probably for strength. Some rectangles are cutouts. The inside includes a hinged anchor point.
That's not a lot of information to go on, since we don't see much of the insides of a Falcon 2nd stage. The satellite carrier structure? Something connected with gimbaling the motor? I haven't downloaded the interface specs
that SpaceX customers are provided with, which could help confirm or refute the first possibility.
Note that interstages (and the pushers that separate the 2nd stage) return to
earth with the booster, and that fairings are self-separating and land in the
water long before the 2nd stage reaches orbit.