A house was hit by debris from the International Space Station

A component that was on the International Space Station fell on a house in Florida. Fortunately, no one was injured due to the uncontrolled return of this artificial object.

Something fell on the roof of a house, but it wasn't a meteorite. It is an object designed by humanity: a component of the International Space Station (ISS), which orbits at an altitude of 400 km above the Earth, confirmed NASA on April 15, 2024. The object from space fell on March 8 on a home in the city of Naples in Florida. Fortunately, the inhabitants of the house were not injured by the fall of this element.

The object was to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere

What was this piece of the ISS, and above all how did it fall back to Earth without control?

The object was part of a pallet of space junk weighing around 2 tonnes, which was detached from the station in 2021, using the robotic arm. The pallet contained used batteries from the station, replaced with more modern lithium-ion batteries. The palette was supposed to completely burn up during its atmospheric reentry, scheduled for March 8, 2024.

“ However, one piece survived reentry into the atmosphere and hit a home in Naples, Florida », Explains NASA in its publication. The waste was finally collected by the space agency from the owner of the house, in order to be analyzed at the Kennedy Space Center. Examinations confirmed that the debris corresponded to equipment that had been used to mount the batteries on the pallet.

Debris from the ISS fell on a house in Florida. // Source: NASA (cropped image) — Debris from the ISS fell on a house in Florida. // Source : NASA (cropped image)

For the moment, NASA does not explain why this space debris did not burn up as expected and how it was able to survive crossing the Earth's atmosphere. Even if the space agency anticipates how the debris will disintegrate upon contact with the atmosphere, there can be errors. Engineers' models will therefore have to be updated based on the results of the analyzes — to avoid the risk of other similar impacts.

This time, the story ended well, without any injuries. The episode, however, reminds us that space debris is a thorny problem. Earth's orbit is littered with this detritus. They represent a danger on the ground, if their atmospheric re-entry does not completely consume them, but also in space, for astronauts. The ISS is regularly forced to dodge them. It is also because of the danger of this debris that an astronaut's worst nightmare is losing a tool in space.