Object that crashed through Florida home's roof was from space station, NASA confirms

Object that crashed through Florida home’s roof was from space station, NASA confirms

Benjamin Hughes

Clearing the heavens of space junk

Clearing the heavens of space junk

06:17

NASA confirmed Monday that a mystery object that crashed through the roof of a Florida home last month was a chunk of space junk from equipment discarded at the International Space Station.

The cylindrical object that tore through the home in Naples on March 8 was subsequently taken to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral for analysis.

The space agency said it was a metal support used to mount old batteries on a cargo pallet for disposal. The pallet was jettisoned from the space station in 2021 and the load was expected to eventually fully burn up on entry into Earth’s atmosphere, but one piece survived.

naples-flordia-space-junk-041524.jpg
Undated photo provided by NASA shows a recovered chunk of space junk from equipment discarded at the International Space Station. The cylindrical object that tore into a home in Naples, Fla., on March 8, 2024, was subsequently taken to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., for analysis. 

NASA via AP


The chunk of metal weighed 1.6 pounds and was 4 inches tall and roughly 1 1/2 inches wide.

More

More

Source: cbsnews.com