Florida man's home struck by ISS debris, NASA investigates origin

Alejandro Otero, a Florida resident, established an unusual relationship with NASA. As reported on arstechnica.com, an unknown object from space fell into his house, piercing the roof and two floors. The incident took place in Naples, Florida.

The object that fell into Alejandro Otero's house weighed about 1 kilogram. At the time of the incident, the homeowner was outside, but his son was inside. The unknown space object fell into Otero's house on March 8 at 18:34 (Greenwich Time) – five minutes earlier, the United States Space Command had registered the re-entry of a piece of space debris from the ISS. The object was then over the Gulf of Mexico, heading toward Southwestern Florida.

The object in question used batteries from the ISS, which were attached to a cargo pallet. They were supposed to return to Earth in a controlled manner, but due to a series of delays, this did not happen. In 2021, NASA discarded the batteries from the station.

Josh Finch, a NASA spokesperson, confirmed to Ars Technica's editorial team that NASA had received the item found. Engineers from the Kennedy Space Center will analyze the object "as quickly as possible," allowing for confirmation of its origin.

As Ars Technica cites, most of the space debris probably burned up while entering the Earth's atmosphere – the temperature of an object in such circumstances can reach even several thousand degrees Celsius. This usually causes the object to evaporate before reaching the ground.

NASA states that the pallet and nine used batteries from the power system weighed over 2,600 kilograms. It was about twice as big as a standard refrigerator. Objects of this kind often fall to Earth on guided trajectories – typically, these are damaged satellites or spent rocket stages that remained in orbit after completing their missions.

The issue of compensation for the damaged roof may be interesting. If the object is NASA's property, Otero or his insurer may expect compensation from the agency or the US government. However, if the material did not come from the United States, claims should be directed against the country responsible for placing the object in space. In this case, we are dealing with American batteries attached to a structure launched by the Japanese Space Agency.

As Ars Technica reminds, a NASA spokesperson at the Johnson Space Center in Houston claimed on March 8 that a thorough analysis had shown that the debris on the pallet would enter the Earth's atmosphere without causing damage. No element was expected to reach the Earth's surface. However, The Aerospace Corporation research and development centre claims that the general rule is that 20-40% of a large object will reach the Earth. The nickel-hydrogen batteries were made of metals with a relatively high density, which was significant. The European Space Agency also mentioned that some pallet parts might reach the Earth's surface.

Ars Technica cites data declared by NASA, indicating that the probability of a person being injured by falling space debris is less than 1 in 100 billion. In history, however, there have been several dangerous situations – space debris fell on buildings. Also, it injured people, but there has never been a death as a result of such an incident.