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AN OBJECT believed to be from the International Space Station (ISS) has fallen from the sky and into someones home, a man has claimed.
Florida, US, resident Alejandro Otero says the cylindrical object crashed two-floors deep into his house and almost hit his son.
X/@Alejandro0teroThe chunk of debris is thought to be from the massive EP-9 equipment pallet that was jettisoned from the ISS for an uncontrolled landing over Earth in early March[/caption]
Florida, US, resident Alejandro Otero says the cylindrical object crashed two-floors deep into his house and almost hit his sonX/@Alejandro0tero
NASAThe EP-9 equipment pallet, about the size of an SUV, is the largest object to have ever been thrown out from the ISS[/caption]
The chunk of debris is thought to be from the massive EP-9 equipment pallet that was jettisoned from the ISS for an uncontrolled landing over Earth in early March.
Astronomer Jonathan McDowell, who roughly tracked the reentry of the debris, initially said the EP-9 equipment pallet reentered on March 8 at 7:29pm UTC over the Gulf of Mexico between Cancun and Cuba.
Alejandro Otero on X
“This was within the previous prediction window but a little to the northeast of the ‘most likely’ part of the path,” McDowell wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“A couple minutes later reentry and it would have reached Ft Myers.”
However, Otero claims the estimations were wrong, having captured the sound of the crash on his Google Nest security cameras.
“Looks like one of those pieces missed Ft Myers and landed in my house in Naples,” Otero wrote in a tweet to McDowell.
“Tore through the roof and went through two floors. Almost hit my son.”
After analysing the claims, McDowell agreed that the timings match up and that it may be “a bit from the reentry of the EP-9 battery pallet.”
The EP-9 equipment pallet, about the size of an SUV, is the largest object to have ever been thrown out from the ISS.
Launched to the ISS in May 2020, the pallet was used to replace old batteries with new lithium-ion batteries for the station’s solar energy storage.
What is space debris?
Space debris is an umbrella term for any bit of junk, disused equipment and otherwise, that is currently stuck in Earth’s orbit.
And it has spiralled into a big problem since the dawn of the space age in the 1950s.
There are nearly 30,000 objects bigger than a softball hurtling a few hundred miles above Earth, ten times faster than a bullet.
It poses huge risks to satellites and the International Space Station (ISS), where crew occasionally have to maneuver out of the way of objects hurtling towards them.
In 2016, a fleck of paint managed to chip a window in the ISS because it was moving at such high speeds in Earth’s orbit.
The problem is, it’s not just a space issue – but Earth’s too.
Objects in space undergo a process called orbital decay, which means they orbit closer to Earth as time goes on.
Debris left in orbits below 600km normally fall back to Earth within several years.
While most space debris burns up on reentry to Earth’s atmosphere – there are some bits that don’t.
This is particularly the case with larger objects, like the EP-9 pallet.
A report by US watchdog, the Federal Aviation Authority, published last year warned that space debris that survived the fiery reentry could kill or injure someone on Earth every two years by 2035.
Experts, including McDowell, agree more needs to be done to ensure payload reentering Earth’s atmosphere is not a risk to people and property on the ground.
Many say it’s only a matter of time before there is a casualty.
Otero is now waiting from confirmation from Nasa.
“I eagerly await communication from the responsible agencies, as their assistance is crucial in resolving the damages from this deliberate release,” he said.
“But more importantly how in the future to arrange the payload so it will burn in its entirety as it reenters.”
Engineers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center will analyse the object “as soon as possible to determine its origin,” spokesperson Josh Finch told Ars Technica.
“More information will be available once the analysis is complete.”
Experts, including McDowell, agree more needs to be done to ensure payload reentering Earth’s atmosphere is not a risk to people and property on the groundX/@Alejandro0tero”}]]