Nasa is now investigating an object that fell from space, and plummeted through the roof of Alejandro Otero’s Naples, Florida home.
Although Otero himself was absent during the incident, his son was present, according to WDBO. A Nest home security camera captured the crash sound at 2:34 PM local time (19:34 UTC) on March 8. Interestingly, this closely aligns with the time—2:29 PM EST (19:29 UTC)—when the US Space Command recorded the reentry of a space debris fragment from the space station. At that moment, the object followed a trajectory over the Gulf of Mexico, heading toward southwest Florida.
Otero posted photos of the space debris on X shortly after the incident happened with a message for NASA. He wrote, “hello. Looks like one of those pieces missed Ft Myers and landed in my house in Naples. Tore through the roof and went thru 2 floors. Almost his my son. Can you please assist with getting NASA to connect with me? I’ve left messages and emails without a response”.
The space debris in question comprised depleted batteries from the ISS, originally attached to a cargo pallet intended for a controlled return to Earth. However, due to a series of delays, this cargo pallet missed its scheduled journey back. Consequently, NASA deliberately jettisoned the batteries from the space station in 2021, setting them on an unguided reentry path.
WINK News, the CBS affiliate for southwest Florida, initially reported Otero’s encounter with space debris. Subsequently, NASA successfully recovered the debris from the homeowner, as confirmed by Josh Finch, an agency spokesperson.