NASA revealed that the mysterious object that crashed into the roof of a house in Florida last month originated from the International Space Station (ISS). Agency officials stated, "Based on the examination, the agency has determined that the debris is a strut from NASA's flight support equipment used for installing batteries on the cargo platform." According to the website "space," the house in Florida belongs to Alejandro Otero. Shortly after the incident that occurred on March 8, Otero said, "I believe the object in question was part of a cargo platform loaded with 5,800 pounds (2,630 kilograms) of old batteries that were disposed of from the ISS in March 2021," and he was correct, according to NASA's new analysis of the object conducted at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA officials explained that the cylindrical piece of space junk is made of a metal alloy called Inconel, weighing 1.6 pounds (0.7 kilograms), and measuring 4 inches (10 centimeters) in height and 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) in width. The nickel-hydride batteries were discarded after newer lithium-ion versions were delivered to the ISS to upgrade the power supply.
In an update today, NASA officials mentioned that the platform and batteries were expected to burn up completely in Earth's atmosphere, but that did not occur. They added, "The ISS will conduct a detailed investigation into the debris disposal and re-entry analysis to determine the cause of the debris surviving and to update modeling and analysis." They clarified, "NASA specialists use engineering models to estimate how objects heat up and disintegrate during re-entry into the atmosphere," emphasizing, "These models require detailed input parameters and are regularly updated when it is discovered that debris has survived re-entry to Earth."
Otero stated, "I am eagerly awaiting communication from the responsible agencies, as their assistance is critical in resolving the damages caused by this incident, but more importantly, how the cargo will be arranged in the future to ensure it burns up completely upon re-entry."
