A mysterious object that fell from the sky before crashing into a Florida home last month was space debris, NASA said.
The space agency said Monday that the cylindrical piece of metal, which weighed 0.7 kg (1.6 lb) and measured 10 cm (four inches) high and about 4 cm (1.5 inches) wide, had been thrown from the International Space Center in 2021.
It landed on the roof, crashed through the building and hit the ground at Alejandro Otero’s house in Naples on that of Florida on the southwest coast on March 8 and was transported to the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral for analysis.
NASA said it was a metal bracket used to mount old batteries on a cargo pallet for disposal.
The pallet was dropped from space station three years ago, and the charge was expected to eventually burn up completely upon entry into Earth’s atmosphere, but a piece survived.
Mr Otero told TV station WINK at the time that the object, which made a “tremendous noise”, tore through his ceiling and tore up the floor, narrowly missing his son.
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He said he returned early from vacation when his son told him what happened.
Mr Otero said: “I was shaking. I was in complete disbelief. What are the chances of something landing on my house with that much force and causing that much damage.
“I’m very grateful that no one was hurt.”