A man in Naples, Florida, now has answers, over a month after a space object crashed through the roof of his home.
NASA confirmed in a press release that the object was part of a cargo pallet containing aging nickel hydride batteries from the International Space Station.
Specifically, NASA said the object was “a stanchion from the NASA flight support equipment used to mount the batteries on the cargo pallet.”
“In March 2021, NASA ground controllers used the International Space Station’s robotic arm to release a cargo pallet containing aging nickel hydride batteries from the space station following the delivery and installation of new lithium-ion batteries as part of power upgrades on the orbital outpost, ” the agency said, noting, “The total mass of the hardware released from space station was about 5,800 pounds.”
After examination, NASA said it assessed the object is made of the metal alloy Inconel, weighs 1.6 pounds, and is four inches in height and 1.6 inches in diameter.
NASA said the cargo pallet was expected to “fully burn up” while entering Earth’s atmosphere, according to the press release.
However, the stanchion impacted the roof of Alejandro Otero’s home in Naples, Florida on March 8, Otero confirmed to ABC News at the time, after sharing https://twitter.com/Alejandro0tero/status/1768729031493427225 of the damage on
Otero said in March 15 post that the apparent space object “tore through the roof” and went through two floors of his home, and that the object “almost hit my son.”
In a statement to ABC News on April 2, NASA said the agency “collected an item in cooperation with the homeowner, and will analyze the object at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as soon as possible to determine its origin,” adding then that ” More information will be available once the analysis is complete.”
In an April interview with WINK-TV in Ft. Myers, Florida, Otero said he was on vacation when the incident took place but that his son was home and called him about the damage, saying, “Something ripped through the house and then done a big hole on the floor and on the ceiling.”
“When we heard that, we were like, impossible, and then immediately I thought a meteorite,” Otero told WINK.
“It used to have a cylindrical shape, and you can tell by the shape of the top that it traveled in this direction through the atmosphere. Whatever you burned, created in this burn, and melted the metal over in this direction,” Otero told WINK.
“I was shaking. I was completely in disbelief,” Otero told WINK about his reaction upon arriving at his home and seeing the impact damage. “What are the chances of something landing on my house with such force to cause so much damage?” he said, adding, “I’m super grateful that nobody got hurt.”
In response to the damage the stanchion did to Otero’s home, NASA said in the release, “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.”
