NEWS

NASA confirms origin of space junk that crashed through Florida home

by | Apr 16, 2024


A photograph of the recovered stanchion from the NASA flight support equipment used to mount International Space Station batteries on a cargo pallet.
The four-inch tall metal object tore through a roof in Naples, Florida last month. | Image: Alejandro Otero

NASA has confirmed suspicions that the strange object that crashed into a Florida home last month did indeed come from the International Space Station (ISS). The agency analyzed the cylindrical object after it tore through the roof and two floors of a house in Naples on March 8th, and established that it came from a cargo pallet of aging batteries that was released from the ISS back in 2021.

More specifically, NASA revealed in a blog post on Monday that the offending object was a support component used to mount the batteries on the 5,800-pound (2,630-kilogram) pallet released from the space station. Made from Inconel (a metal alloy that can withstand extreme environments like high temperature, pressure, or mechanical loads), the…

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