A robotic arm from the International Space Station is seen releasing a pallet full of batteries in 2021. NASA says it was a metal alloy bracket from this flight equipment that landed in a Florida home.
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A Florida family is suing NASA after a piece of metal space debris belonging to the agency fell to Earth and ravaged their Naples home earlier this year, leaving a hole in the roof.
The March incident was a rare and surprising case of artificial material in orbit returning intact to the surface of our planet and landing in a populated area, and it raised questions about who is responsible when space debris causes damage on earth.
“Space debris is a real and serious problem due to the increase in space traffic in recent years,” the family’s attorney, Mica Nguyen Worthy, said in a statement. “My clients are looking for adequate compensation to account for the stress and impact this event has had on their lives. »
Worthy noted that homeowner Alejandro Otero’s 19-year-old son was in the house at the time of the incident, but was a few rooms away from the impact and was unharmed. “They are grateful that no one was physically injured in this incident, but a ‘near miss’ situation like this could have been catastrophic.
The suit against NASA, filed last month, seeks damages including uninsured property damage, emotional and mental anguish and other damages.
NASA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The agency said in a blog post in April that a “space object” recovered from the Oteros’ home was involved in a March 2021 operation aboard the International Space Station.
At that time, NASA had released a 5,800-pound pallet of old nickel hydride batteries that it said were expected to orbit Earth for two to four years before burning up in the atmosphere.
But the agency said it believed the material that landed in Florida was a 1.6-pound metal alloy pole from “NASA flight support equipment.”
“NASA remains committed to operating responsibly in low Earth orbit and mitigating risks as much as possible to protect people on Earth when space hardware must be released,” the agency said in April.
Worthy said NASA would be held liable for damages caused by its space debris in any other country under the international agreement known as the Space Liability Convention.
But space law expert Mark Sundahl told NPR in April that the law is less clear when NASA-owned hardware lands on U.S. soil, making it a domestic legal issue.
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