Alejandro Otero, who had his house hit in March by a piece that fell from the ISS (International Space Station), decided that he will sue and ask NASA for compensation.
With confirmation that the cylindrical object is indeed a fragment of metal ejected from the space station, Otero and his lawyer Mica Nguyen Worthy told the IFLScience who plan to start a broader conversation about the problem of space debris.
The idea is to discuss in court the responsibilities of space agencies and private space companies when it comes to properly disposing of material in orbit.
NASA confirms that fragment is from the ISS
The episode came to light last month. Alejandro Otero, who lives in the affected house, said that upon returning from his trip, he discovered a large hole in the ceiling and floor. In fact, Otero’s son was at home at the time of the fall. Despite the scare and damage to property located in Florida, USA, no one was hurt.
The object hit the house last March, but was deliberately ejected from the ISS by NASA in 2021. At the time, the space agency used the station’s robotic arm to jettison a payload containing aging nickel hydride batteries into orbit. The disposal occurred because the station had its power systems upgraded, replacing the old ones with new lithium-ion batteries.
NASA says the ISS’s discarded payload weighed 2.6 tons in total, and was expected to burn up completely when it entered Earth’s atmosphere. However, on March 8 of this year, a piece — part of this space debris — fell onto the house in Florida.
The piece of the ISS weighs 700 grams, measures 10 centimeters in height and 4 centimeters in diameter. Made from the metal alloy Inconel, it was part of the ISS’s old battery system. After confirming the object’s origin, NASA committed to investigating how the fragment resisted total destruction in the atmosphere.
The space junk problem
According to a study published in the scientific journal Nature Astronomythere are 651 pieces of space junk at risk of falling out of control in the next 10 years.
In total, there are more than 27 thousand pieces of space debris in orbit – the result of more than 66 years of space exploration.
