NASA confirmed Monday that a mysterious object that crashed on the roof of a house in Florida 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.
NASA via AP
The piece of metal weighed 1.6 pounds and measured 4 inches high and about 1 1/2 inches wide.
The owner, Alejandro Otero, CBS affiliate WINK-TV Fort Meyers, Fla., was on vacation when his son told him what had 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.”
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