Space debris crashes into Florida home, NASA confirms

NASA has confirmed that a piece of debris crashed into a man’s home in Florida and that the piece itself was ejected from the International Space Station. The unusual incident happened last month on March 8, when Alejandro Otero of Naples, Florida, reported on social media that a metallic object had pierced through his roof and two floors of his house, barely missing his son.

Following the nearly tragic event, NASA collected the object from Otero’s home for analysis. In a recent blog post, the space agency revealed that the debris was a stanchion used in mounting batteries on a cargo pallet. Made of the metal alloy Inconel, the object weighs 1.6 pounds, stands 4 inches tall, and has a diameter of 1.6 inches.

The debris was likely part of a cargo pallet fragment carrying old batteries that was ejected from the International Space Station back in 2021.

The timing and location of the incident line up closely with official predictions for the atmospheric burn-up of the fragment.

NASA also announced plans to investigate how the debris managed to survive its journey through the atmosphere without being fully destroyed. The agency said it’ll put even more commitment to safely operating in low Earth orbit and minimizing risks to people on Earth from space hardware.

This is not the first time space debris has collided with Earth. Past events include part of a SpaceX Dragon capsule landing on an Australian farm and the fall of Skylab, the United States’ first space station, in Western Australia. China has also faced criticism from NASA for the uncontrolled reentry of its Long March rockets.