NASA Says Piece of Space Junk Crashed into Florida Home Last Month, Homeowner Left in ‘Disbelief'

The hardware, which weighed about 5,800 lbs., “was expected to fully burn up during entry through Earth’s atmosphere on March 8" — but one piece survived and hit a Naples home

• A homeowner in Florida was shocked in March when a piece of space junk went crashing through his home in Naples

• NASA has identified the object weighs just 1.6 lbs. and is just four inches tall

• The homeowner, Alejandro Otero, said the space junk nearly hit his son when it impacted his home
  

NASA says a piece of space junk crashed into a Florida home in March, which the homeowner said nearly hit his son.

A cargo pallet “containing aging nickel hydride batteries” from the International Space Station was released in March 2021 after new lithium-ion batteries were delivered and installed, according to a blog post shared by the agency.

The hardware, which weighed about 5,800 lbs., “was expected to fully burn up during entry through Earth’s atmosphere on March 8, 2024.” But one piece “survived re-entry” and eventually “impacted a home in Naples.”

NASA later determined the object was a stanchion from “flight support equipment used to mount the batteries on the cargo pallet.” The object, made of a metal alloy, weighs 1.6 lbs., is four inches tall and 1.6 inches in diameter.

Related: Space Smells Like Gunpowder, Burnt Meat and Alcohol, Astronauts Say

Astronomer Jonathan McDowell announced on X (formerly known as Twitter) that the pallet re-entered the atmosphere over the Gulf of Mexico between Cancun and Cuba on March 8.

Alejandro Otero responded to the post by revealing in his own X post that a piece of space junk appeared to have landed in his home, noting that it “tore through the roof” and went through two floors. It also nearly hit his son, he added.

“I was shaking. I was completely in disbelief,” Otero told CBS affiliate WINK-TV. “What are the chances of something landing on my house with such force to cause so much damage? I’m super grateful that nobody got hurt.”

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Otero shared photos of the damage caused by the space junk, and the piece of junk itself. He also shared a video from his Nest camera on X in which the space junk can be heard crashing into the building at 2:34 p.m. local time.

NASA said it “collected the item in cooperation with the homeowner and analyzed the object at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.”

The ISS “will perform a detailed investigation” into the incident, and will “determine the cause of the debris survival,” according to NASA. If needed, they will “update modeling and analysis” regarding re-entry.

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“NASA remains committed to responsibly operating in low Earth orbit, and mitigating as much risk as possible to protect people on Earth when space hardware must be released,” the agency said in its blog post.

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