Space trash from the International Space Station tears through Florida man’s home

A few weeks ago, something celestial plummeted through the roof of Alejandro Otero’s home, prompting NASA’s attention.

Highly likely to have originated from the International Space Station, this nearly 2-pound object tore through both floors of Otero’s two-story house in Naples, Florida.

Although Otero himself was absent during the incident, his son was present. A Nest home security camera captured the crash sound at 2:34 PM local time (19:34 UTC) on March 8. Interestingly, this closely aligns with the time—2:29 PM EST (19:29 UTC)—when the US Space Command recorded the reentry of a space debris fragment from the space station. At that moment, the object followed a trajectory over the Gulf of Mexico, heading toward southwest Florida.

The space debris in question comprised depleted batteries from the ISS, originally attached to a cargo pallet intended for a controlled return to Earth. However, due to a series of delays, this cargo pallet missed its scheduled journey back. Consequently, NASA deliberately jettisoned the batteries from the space station in 2021, setting them on an unguided reentry path.

WINK News, the CBS affiliate for southwest Florida, initially reported Otero’s encounter with space debris. Subsequently, NASA successfully recovered the debris from the homeowner, as confirmed by Josh Finch, an agency spokesperson.