On March 8, a piece of space debris fell from a roof in Naples, Florida, tearing apart two floors (luckily) missed The son of homeowner Alejandro Otero. On Tuesday, NASA confirmed its analysis of the incident. As suspected, this is equipment dumped from the International Space Station (ISS) three years ago.
NASA’s investigation of the object at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral confirmed that it was part of the EP-9 support equipment used to install batteries onto cargo pallets, the International Space Station’s robotic arm on March 11, 2021 The device was released. lasted almost three years). Not completely.
The debris that penetrated the roof was described as a strut for NASA’s flight support equipment, used to mount batteries onto cargo pallets. The object is made of the metal alloy Inconel, weighs 1.6 pounds, is 4 inches tall and 1.6 inches in diameter.
Hello. Looks like one of them missed Fort Myers and ended up at my house in Naples.
Tear through the roof and go through two floors. Almost his son.
Can you help get NASA to contact me? I left messages and emails but no response. pic.twitter.com/Yi29f3EwyV— Alejandro Otero (@Alejandro0tero) March 15, 2024
Otero told Fort Meyers CBS affiliate WINK-TV that he was on vacation when his son told him an object pierced their roof. “I’m shaking,” he said. “I am in complete disbelief. What is the possibility that an object fell on my house with such force and caused so much damage? I am extremely grateful that no one was hurt.
NASA said it would investigate the dump and return of the equipment to try to find out why the object hit Otero’s home instead of disintegrating into flames. “NASA experts use engineering models to estimate how objects heat up and break down during re-entry,” the space agency explained in a press release. “These models require detailed input parameters and are regularly updated when debris is found to have survived re-entry.”
According to NASA, most space junk moves extremely fast, reaching speeds of up to 18,000 mph. It explains that “due to the velocity and volume of low-Earth orbit debris, current and future space-based services, exploration and operations pose safety risks to people and property in space and on Earth.”
