Featured Image Credit: X/@Alejandro0tero
Topics: NASA, International Space Station, News, US News, Space
Niamh Shackleton
Topics: NASA, International Space Station, News, US News, Space
A man's home was damaged after an object from the sky came crashing through it.
In recent weeks, Alejandro Otero revealed that a two-pound object hit his home in Naples, Florida, and penetrated two of the property's floors.
Alejandro wasn't home at the time of the ordeal on March 8, but his son was. Fortunately no one was hurt in the ordeal, but Alejandro is still wanting answers as to what it was that hit his home and who is responsible.
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Speaking to local news outlet WINK News, the concerned father said: "It was a tremendous sound. It almost hit my son. He was two rooms over and heard it all."
While Alejandro wasn't home, he heard the object pierce through his roof via a home security camera.
"Something ripped through the house and then made a big hole on the floor and on the ceiling," he called.
"When we heard that, we were like, impossible, and then immediately I thought a meteorite."
It's now suspected that the object that came crashing through Alejandro's home was a EP-9 equipment pallet, as around the time he reported that the item hit his home, the US Space Command recorded the reentry of a piece of space debris from the International Space Station.
On March 9, Ars Technica reported that three tons of trash from the space station fell to Earth in an unguided reentry.
The outlet suspected that most of the objects 'burned up during reentry', but it seems that some reached the Earth's surface (and Alejandro's home) intact.
Alejandro has since been communicating with astronomer Jonathan McDowell via X.
"The EP-9 equipment pallet reentered at 1929 UTC over the Gulf of Mexico between Cancun and Cuba. This was [with] the previous prediction window but a little to the northeast of the 'most likely' part of the path. A couple minutes later reentry and it would have reached Ft Myers," Jonathan tweeted on March 8.
Alejandro replied shortly after: "Hello. Looks like one of those pieces missed Ft Myers and landed in my house in Naples.
"Tore through the roof and went thru 2 floors. Almost his my son. Can you please assist with getting NASA to connect with me? I’ve left messages and emails without a response [sic]."
Jonathan went on to assure Alejandro that he'd passed on the information to the Aerospace Corporation about the item that had landed in his home.
From the photos and the timeframe shared with Jonathan, the astronomer agreed that there was a good chance the object was from the International Space Station.
If this is right, Alejandro's insurance could make a claim against the federal government under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
Executive director of the Center for Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi told Ars: "It gets more interesting if this material is discovered to be not originally from the United States.
"If it is a human-made space object which was launched into space by another country, which caused damage on Earth, that country would be absolutely liable to the homeowner for the damage caused."
A NASA spokesperson has since confirmed that the object has been retrieved from Alejandro's home to be analyzed.
In a statement to UNILAD, NASA's Josh Finch said: "NASA collected an item in cooperation with the homeowner, and will analyze the object at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as soon as possible to determine its origin.
"More information will be available once the analysis is complete."