An object that literally fell from the sky onto the roof of a Florida home is now being studied by NASA to find its origins. If it turns out that the “railroad” really flew from the ISS, most likely the US aviation agency and the federal government are waiting for a lawsuit.

A few weeks ago, a piece of iron weighing almost two kilograms pierced the roof (and went through two floors) of Alejandro Otero’s two-story house in Naples, Florida. The Nest home security camera recorded a loud noise at 14:34 local time. Five minutes earlier, at 2:29 p.m., the US space command observed the uncontrolled entry into the atmosphere of a piece of space debris from the ISS. At the time, the object was moving across the Gulf of Mexico towards southwest Florida.

Luckily, no one in the house was injured, but Otero suffered “thousands of dollars” in property damage. A Florida resident assumed the debris that crashed into his home was part of space debris. Therefore, according to the landlord, “responsible institutions” should compensate everyone “down to the last penny”.

Currently, NASA experts are examining the piece of iron to find its origin. So far they have not made any statement about the situation. If the facility truly belongs to NASA, Otero or his insurance company could file a lawsuit against the space agency and the federal government. In this case, these institutions are waiting for the court process.

According to some experts familiar with the situation and quoted by Ars Technica, the fragment that crashed into Otero’s home was part of the used Expose Pallet 9 (EP9) nickel-hydrogen batteries from the ISS power system.

Initially, NASA planned to return these batteries aboard the Japanese spacecraft H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV). However, due to a series of delays on the HTV ship in 2021, the agency decided to remove the batteries from the ISS using the space station’s robotic manipulator arm. Batteries took up a lot of space and this space had to be freed up for a scientific laboratory.

The 2.6-ton battery pallet “drifted in orbit” for three years until aerodynamic drag eventually pushed it back into the atmosphere. As a result, space debris made an uncontrolled entry into the dense layers of the atmosphere, where it had to burn up. NASA made this decision consciously, after careful analysis and after being convinced of the safety of such a flight.

Expose Pallet 9’s batteries became the most powerful object ever launched from the ISS. Disposal of used or unnecessary equipment in this way is a common practice, as often these systems burn up almost completely in the Earth’s atmosphere, rarely leaving debris that can fall to Earth. If this happens, in most cases the pieces will fall into the ocean.

On March 9, NASA officials reported that a pallet full of batteries re-entered the atmosphere and burned up. The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration noted that debris from space debris is unlikely to reach the Earth’s surface.

However, some experts in the field of cosmonautics did not agree with NASA’s statement at that time. According to experts, 20 to 40 percent of the mass of a large space object sent to Earth can reach the surface. The exact percentage depends on the design, but Expose Pallet 9 nickel-hydrogen batteries are made of high-density metals, so parts of the batteries can survive a “high-temperature apocalypse” in the atmosphere.

The European Space Agency (ESA) also admitted that some pieces of debris from the ISS could reach the Earth’s surface. If NASA confirms that the debris that hit Otero’s home in March 2024 came from the ISS, it would not be the first case of property damage caused by an object falling from orbit.

In rare cases, people often find pieces of space debris in fields or on the shore (these are washed out by waves). Sometimes debris falls on a structure or injures a person. No one has yet died during the falling space debris. According to the ESA, the risk of space debris harming a person over the course of a year is less than one in 100 billion.

However, throughout the history of cosmonautics, researchers have recorded injuries caused by objects falling from orbit, as well as damage to private property. So, in 1969, the debris of a Soviet spacecraft crashed into a small Japanese ship off the coast of Siberia, injuring five people. In 1997, a small piece of unknown material struck Oklahoma resident Lottie Williams in the shoulder; experts later linked it to part of the stage of the American Delta II launch vehicle. In 2003, a 30-centimeter metal bracket from the shuttle Columbia broke the roof of a dentist’s office in Texas.

In 2020, there was an uncontrolled descent from the stage orbit of the Chinese Changzheng-5 rocket. Its wreckage crashed into a settlement in the African Republic of Ivory Coast. No one was harmed.