NASA confirms that the mysterious object that crashed on the roof of a Florida house came from the space station

NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — NASA confirmed Monday that a mysterious object that crashed onto the roof of a Florida home last month was a piece of space debris from abandoned equipment at the International Space Station .

The cylindrical object that ravaged the Naples home on March 8 was then transported to the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral for analysis.

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

The piece of metal weighed 1.6 pounds (0.7 kilograms) and measured 4 inches (10 centimeters) in height and about 1 1/2 inches (4 centimeters) in width.

The owner, Alejandro Otero, told TV station WINK that he was on vacation when his son told him what happened. Otero came home early to check the house, discovering that the object had torn through his ceiling and torn up the floor.

“I was shaking. I was in complete disbelief. What are the chances that something would land on my house with that force and cause that much damage,” Otero said. “I’m very grateful that no one was hurt.”