NASA has just solved a (small) mystery. The object from the sky which pierced the house of a Florida resident had indeed arrived from the International Space Station (ISS), the American space agency confirmed on Monday.
On March 8, a resident of a town in Florida recovered a gray semi-cylindrical object that he said “pierced the roof and two floors” of his house, and transmitted it to NASA.
An object that should have entered the atmosphere “without danger”
The agency therefore confirmed on Monday the scenario which was then supposed: the object comes from a cargo of old batteries, waste released from the ISS in 2021 although planned to re-enter the atmosphere “without danger”. The incriminated object, approximately 700 grams, is made of a metal alloy called Inconel.
NASA further said it was investigating why the debris was not completely destroyed in the atmosphere, and whether there is a need to change its practices.
Incidents of the same type have already taken place in the past. In 2022, Australian authorities, for example, confirmed that charred space debris that fell into a sheep enclosure came from a SpaceX device.