Garbage falls from space and hits civilian homes in the US

According to Wired , on March 8, an unidentified object fell from the sky onto the roof of Mr. Alejandro Otero's house. NASA suspects that they may have come from the International Space Station (ISS).

At the time of the incident, Otero was not home but his son witnessed the incident. The family's security camera also recorded sound from the accident at 2:34 p.m. on March 8 (local time).

This is important information because it coincides with the time the US Space Command recorded the movement of a piece of space debris from the space station. At that time, the object was moving across the Gulf of Mexico, toward southwest Florida.

The space junk suspected of causing the accident in Florida includes expired batteries from the ISS, which were placed in a cargo box and released to Earth under supervision from experts on the research station. However, due to many delay factors, NASA jettisoned them from the space station in 2021 without a monitor.

NASA recovered debris from the house to analyze its origin. The space trash container mentioned above includes 9 unused batteries from the space station's electrical system, weighing more than 2.6 tons. In terms of size, it is twice as tall as a standard refrigerator.

It is important to note that objects of equal or greater mass frequently fall to Earth in pre-calculated orbits. In particular, they are often broken satellites or used booster stages.

In a post on social network

According to Michelle Hanlon, Executive Director of the Center for Aviation and Space Law at the University of Mississippi, Mr. Otero and the insurance company in charge can make a claim if the unidentified object above is on property. owned by NASA.

Before the above incident, a NASA spokesperson at the Johnson Space Center said research agencies 'conducted a thorough analysis of the debris on the pallet and determined that it would reenter the atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere harmlessly'.

However, research from other space experts contains a lot of information that does not coincide with NASA's statement. The Aerospace Corporation, a federally funded research and development center, says the 'rule of thumb' is that 20-40% of the mass of a large object from space will reach the ground.

The exact percentage depends on the object's design, but the nickel-hydrogen batteries used on the ISS are made of a fairly high density metal.

In addition, the European Space Agency also admitted that some debris from this mass of garbage may have fallen to the ground.

Samuel Daniel

Update 05 April 2024