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‘Finders keepers’ doesn’t apply to space junk that may land in your Florida yard
A warning to Floridians: If a piece of the latest SpaceX rocket falls into your yard, call the police — or else.
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A warning to Floridians: If a piece of the latest SpaceX rocket falls into your yard, call the police — or else.
Under a bill passed by lawmakers Monday, Floridians would face charges for not turning over parts of rockets or other manmade space debris that fall onto their property or wash up on their beach.
If you find an object that “reasonably” looks like a space part on your lawn and don’t report it to police, you could be subject to a new first-degree misdemeanor and up to a $1,000 fine, plus restitution to the owner of the part.
The bill is now heading to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk with backing by SpaceX, run by founder and CEO Elon Musk. The company has been launching from Cape Canaveral for years. On Friday, its Falcon 9 rocket carried four astronauts from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station.
Although NASA rockets and shuttles have been blasting off from Florida for decades, the changing nature of spaceflight has made it more important to recover fallen parts, said lawmakers and a lobbyist for SpaceX.
Because SpaceX is reusing rockets and other parts to dramatically reduce the cost of spaceflight, it’s more dependent on recovering parts and pieces. Plus, because private companies such as SpaceX have taken over from NASA on a variety of spaceflight duties, companies don’t want to lose what might be valuable design secrets.
SpaceX lobbyist Jeff Sharkey told a House committee last month that the company feared losing intellectual property to China.
“This bill, which seems trivial, is extremely important,” Sharkey said.