The family claims NASA space debris exploded through the house after falling from orbit

NASA’s 5,800-pound space junk was supposed to orbit Earth for several years before “burning up harmlessly in the atmosphere.”

That didn’t go as planned, and a Florida family received an unsolicited delivery from the International Space Station on March 8.

A 1.6-kilogram metal alloy object “left a large hole from the roof through the sub-floor” of the Otero family’s home in Naples while their son was inside, according to the law firm representing the family.

No one was hurt, but the family’s attorney, Mica Nguyen Worthy, said: “A near miss like this could have been catastrophic.”

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“House recovered from NASA flight support equipment used to mount International Space Station batteries on a cargo pallet. The pole survived re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere on March 8, 2024 and hit a house in Naples, Florida,” NASA said. (NASA)

According to NASA, an outer pallet filled with old nickel-hydrogen batteries was meant to burn up “harmlessly” in Earth’s atmosphere, but it didn’t. (NASA)

The International Space Station launched an “external pallet filled with old nickel-hydrogen batteries orbiting 260 miles above the Pacific Ocean, west of Central America,” NASA said on March 11, 2021.

The remnants of the discarded battery pack that powers the space station burned into an object four inches high and 1.6 inches in diameter, NASA said in an April 15 press release.

It was expected to orbit Earth for two to four years before burning up “harmlessly” in the atmosphere.

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A view of the International Space Station taken on March 30, 2022 by the crew of the Russian Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft after liftoff. (Roscosmos State Space Corporation via AP, File)

Astronomer Jonathan McDowell posted on X about the entry of space debris into Earth’s atmosphere on March 8, along with its predicted path and the possibility that it could hit Fort Myers.

“Looks like one of these pieces missed Ft. Myers and landed at my house in Naples,” replied Alejandro Otero, along with photos of the damage and the object. “Tore the roof off and went through (sic) 2 stories. Almost his son (sic) mine.”

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Otero’s posts on X have since been deleted.

NASA did not return Fox News Digital’s request for comment, but Otero’s attorney responded in an email.

This illustration made available by Johns Hopkins APL and NASA depicts NASA’s DART probe, foreground right, and the Italian Space Agency’s LICIACube, lower right, in the Didymos system before impact with asteroid Dimorphos, left. (Steve Gribben/Johns Hopkins APL/NASA via AP)

She clarified that there has not yet been a court process and she hopes that it will not rise to that level.

“We have submitted claims to NASA for Oteros, and if NASA is unable to resolve the claims to Oteros’ satisfaction, then they will have the right to consider filing a lawsuit in federal court,” she said.

This is an opportunity for NASA to “set a precedent for what responsible, safe and sustainable space operations should look like,” according to Worthy.

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“Space debris is a real and serious issue due to the increase in space traffic in recent years,” said the lawyer.

“If the incident had occurred overseas and someone in another country had been harmed by the same space debris as in the Otero case, the US would have been absolutely responsible for paying for those damages.”

She asked NASA and the US government to follow the same legal principle.

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The piece that hit Otero’s home was analyzed at the space agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

According to NASA, NASA specialists use engineering models to estimate how objects “heat up and disintegrate during atmospheric reentry.”

These models are “regularly updated” after situations like this where debris survives re-entry and hits the ground.

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“The International Space Station will conduct a detailed investigation of the ejection and reentry analysis to determine the cause of the debris’ survival and to update the modeling and analysis as necessary,” NASA said on April 15.

“NASA remains committed to operating responsibly in low Earth orbit and mitigating as much risk as possible to protect people on Earth when space hardware must be launched.”