Space debris crashes through Florida man's roof, narrowly missing son's head

Space debris that damaged Alejandro Otero's home will be analyzed by NASA. Photo: X

NASA is analyzing a piece of space debris that crashed through a Florida man's roof, narrowly missing his son.

Alejandro Otero of Naples, Fla., said the object “pierced the roof and went [through] ] two floors” of his home, nearly hit his son on the afternoon of March 8.

After discovering a small object, he believes it was a piece of a cargo pallet containing old batteries that NASA ground control teams discarded from orbital outposts in 2021.

It should have burned harmlessly above the Earth's atmosphere. March 8, according to official forecasts.

Mr. Otero also posted on X (formerly Twitter) a clip from his Nest home video camera, where he said the sound of it falling through the roof could be heard at 2 o'clock nights. :34 pm

“So this is 1934 UTC, which is very consistent with the Cosmic Force's estimate of re-entry over the Persian Gulf at 1929 UTC,” noted astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell wrote in response. “I think you may be right, and this is a bit like returning the EP-9 battery tray.”

Hello. Apparently one of these pieces missed Fort Myers and landed at my home in Naples.
I broke through the roof and went through 2 floors. Almost his is my son.
Can you help NASA contact me? I left messages and emails unanswered. pic.twitter.com/Yi29f3EwyV

— Alejandro Otero (@Alejandro0tero) March 15, 2024

This news was first reported by local news portal winknews.com on March 15.

“NASA collected the item in cooperation with the homeowner and will analyze it. object at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida as soon as possible to determine its origin,” the space agency said Tuesday. “More information will be available once the analysis is completed.”

A report by specialist news agency Ars Technica said that although the batteries belonged to NASA, they were attached to a pallet structure launched into space by Japan. Agency – potentially complicating liability claims.

Past examples of man-made space debris falling to Earth include part of a SpaceX Dragon capsule landing on an Australian sheep farm in 2022. Skylab, the first US space station. , crashed into Western Australia after returning to the planet.

China has recently come under fire for allowing its giant Long March rockets to fall back to Earth after entering orbit.