Achi news desk-
NAPLES, Fla. –
NASA confirmed on Monday that a mysterious object that fell through the roof of a Florida home last month was a piece of space junk from equipment discarded at the International Space Station.
The cylindrical object that tore through the Naples home on March 8 was taken to the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral for analysis.
The space agency said it was a metal support used to place old batteries on a cargo pallet for disposal. The pallet was dropped from the space station in 2021, and the shipment was expected to burn up completely upon re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, but one piece survived.
The piece of metal weighed 1.6 pounds (0.7 kilograms) and was four inches tall and about 1 1/2 inches wide.
Homeowner Alejandro Otero told TV station WINK at the time that he was on vacation when his son told him what had happened. Otero came home early to check on the house, only to find that the object had ripped through his ceiling and torn up the floor.
“I was shaking. I was in complete disbelief. What are the chances of something landing on my house with that much force to cause that much damage,” Otero said. “I’m extremely grateful that no one was hurt.”
