A piece of space debris that hit a home in Naples, Florida, in March was a piece of the International Space Station, according to NASA.
NASA had expected the debris — old and depleted nickel hydride batteries that were dumped in March 2021 — to burn up completely in the atmosphere by March 8 of this year.
On March 8, however, a piece of debris came rocketing through the atmosphere and pierced through two stories of Alejandro Otero’s Naples home. The timing was suspicious, since the impact occurred at 2:34 p.m. EST, while U.S. Space Command recorded the reentry of the ISS’s space debris at 2:29 p.m.
Otero posted on X on March 15, “Hello. Looks like one of those pieces missed Ft Myers and landed in my house in Naples. Tore through the roof and went thru 2 floors. Almost his my son. Can you please assist with getting NASA to connect with me? I’ve left messages and emails without a response.”
NASA has since contacted Otero and has taken the debris in for analysis, confirming on Monday the object was from the ISS.
“As part of the analysis, NASA completed an assessment of the object’s dimensions and features compared to the released hardware and performed a materials analysis,” NASA said. “Based on the examination, the agency determined the debris to be a stanchion from the NASA flight support equipment used to mount the batteries on the cargo pallet.”
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NASA said the ISS will investigate how the debris survived reentry.
“The International Space Station will perform a detailed investigation of the jettison and re-entry analysis to determine the cause of the debris survival and to update modeling and analysis, as needed,” NASA said.
