Mystery object that crashed into Florida home last month was ‘discarded space junk’, NASA says | Science & Tech News

The debris was a metal support used to mount batteries on a cargo pallet that was jettisoned from the International Space Station in 2021 and survived entry into Earth’s atmosphere.

A mystery object that fell from the sky before crashing into a home in Florida last month was a piece of space junk, NASA has said.

The space agency said on Monday the cylindrical chunk of metal, which weighed 0.7kg (1.6lbs) and was 10cm (four inches) tall and around 4cm (1.5 inches) wide had been discarded from the International Space Center in 2021.

It landed on the roof, smashing through the building and onto the floor of Alejandro Otero’s home in the city of Naples on Florida’s southwest coast on March 8 and was taken to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral for analysis.

NASA said it was a metal support used to mount old batteries on a cargo pallet for disposal.

The pallet was jettisoned from the space station three years ago, and the load was expected to eventually fully burn up upon entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, but one piece survived.

Mr Otero told television station WINK at the time that the object, which made a “tremendous sound”, had ripped through its ceiling and torn up the floor, narrowly missing its son.

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He said he came home early from a holiday when his son told him what had happened.

Mr Otero said: “I was shaking. I was completely in disbelief. What are the chances of something landing on my house with such force to cause so much damage.

“I’m super grateful that nobody got hurt.”