A piece of space junk fell from a man’s roof in Florida. Who should pay for repairs?

Alejandro Otero was out of town for the holidays last month when his son called from his home in Naples, Florida, to tell him something shocking and unbelievable. His 19-year-old son was home alone when he heard a loud bang and realized it was coming from inside the house.

“When he called me to tell me the news, he asked us to make sure we sat down and listened to him tell us the news,” Otero told NPR.

“He didn’t even know how to tell me what was going on and we had to watch and listen to the security cameras to try and piece together what was causing the loud crash,” he said. “It looked like the whole house was shaking so we weren’t sure Was there an earthquake or something? When he saw the hole in the house, he realized something had fallen in.”

Mysterious object finally identified

After rushing home, Otero called the Sheriff’s Department, and an officer who came to the home pulled a piece of metal from the floor.

“This is unlike anything I’ve seen before,” Otero said.

He soon realized that the object was not a meteorite. It is cylindrical in shape, with one end melted by the heat of reentry and the other end smooth and rounded with circular indentations. A shallow, even groove runs along its sides.

Otero starts Understand what an object is, publish images and videos online. He landed on a possible but unusual suspect: a large battery tray from the International Space Station that NASA had released three years ago for an uncontrolled reentry.

The European Space Agency had warned that the battery and tray would re-enter the atmosphere in the early afternoon of March 8. That day, shortly after 2:30 pm ET, Otero’s house was attacked.

“The 18th Space Defense Squadron’s expected reentry site is in the Gulf of Mexico,” Aerospace Corporation, a non-profit research and development nonprofit that advises the U.S. government, said in a statement to NPR. “Naples, Florida is right there. Directly below the site and in the direction of the debris movement.”

NASA retrieved the object from Otero’s home and recently determined it to be part of a battery tray, remnants of approximately 5,800 pounds of hardware discarded from the space station. NASA said the “space object” is the support that secures the battery to the cargo pallet. The surviving object, slightly smaller than a soda can, was made of Inconel, a strong and heat-resistant superalloy.

“We feel very lucky and blessed”

When the object hit Otero’s house in southwest Florida, his son was just a few rooms away from the point of impact.

“We can’t help but wonder what would have happened if it had gone a little bit to the right or to the left and it could have been a lot more catastrophic,” Otero said. “We feel very lucky and blessed that everyone is safe and sound.”

But the incident also raised immediate concerns, from what to do about the hole in the roof to whether the object was dangerous or poisonous. For a while, Otero’s son was left alone.

“Being alone in the house was concerning because he didn’t know if (or what) the debris was dangerous,” Otero said via email. When he later realized the object could be dangerous, Otero said, This concern increases when it comes to power modules used in space.

“After NASA contacted us, my attorney asked them to provide reasonable assurance that the item was not toxic or dangerous,” Otero said. “NASA was able to provide that assurance,” he added , his family was relieved when the agency did not send personnel in hazmat suits to retrieve the object.

“The hardware is expected to burn up completely upon entry into the Earth’s atmosphere,” NASA said after conducting the analysis. The agency is working to figure out how part of it hit Otero’s house, adding that it may require Adjusting engineering models used to estimate how objects break down during re-entry.

The incident highlights concerns about the amount of space debris in Earth’s orbit and raises a rare and complex question: Who should pay to repair homes hit by debris falling from orbit?

Making claims for damage caused by space objects

Asked how much damage the space object caused, Otero said his homeowner’s insurance put the adjusted cost at more than $15,000, adding that he was also evaluating other damage not covered by the policy.

“We are filing a claim against NASA, which includes insurance and non-insurance damages,” he said, adding that his attorney had been in contact with NASA’s legal counsel.

Otero said his insurance company quickly helped hire a contractor to do the repairs.

So, when an object launched into space crashes into someone’s home, who is ultimately responsible for the damage?

“This is unprecedented in a way,” Mark Sundahl, who has worked in space law for more than 20 years, told NPR. Determining liability in such cases can be complex, he said.

“It will depend on who the modules for the space station come from,” said Sundar, director of the Center for Global Space Law at Cleveland State University.

“We have an international convention on liability for damage caused by outer space objects. It started in 1972. So we have the rules in place.”

If space debris falls back to Earth, Sundar said, “the launching country is absolutely responsible for any damage to property or personnel that occurs on the Earth’s surface.”

“There is a different rule [incidents] “In space,” he added. However, there is strict liability when something falls on an innocent person and ends up in their house.

However, Sundar added that if the object in question is part of a U.S. mod, “then international law no longer applies. It becomes a domestic legal matter and the homeowner would have to file a tort lawsuit against the federal government.”

In the case of the Naples incident, the object appeared to have originated in the United States: NASA said the strut came from “NASA Flight Support Equipment.” The agency did not immediately respond to NPR’s inquiry about possible liability.

Has something similar happened before?

Sundar said that decades ago, “we had a major accident” involving an object that went out of orbit.

In 1978, a Soviet satellite, Kosmos 954, “disintegrated over Canada, scattering radioactive fuel across the country,” he said. “They help with the cleanup and pay for it in accordance with international law.”

The European Space Agency says that about once a week, a large space object re-enters the atmosphere and “most of the associated debris burns up before reaching the ground.”

Sundar said there are many instances of space program debris re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere and not completely burning up before falling to the surface. But those usually end up in the ocean; he wasn’t aware of any confirmed reports of damage caused by man-made space objects, like what happened recently in Florida.

There is at least one documented case of a person being struck by something falling from the sky. In 1954, an Alabama woman was hit by a meteorite (she survived with some bruises), but that case did not involve space debris.

“So this is something new,” said Sundar, whose group recently held a symposium on the threat of orbital debris in Florida. According to Space-Track.org, the public website of the U.S. Space Command, the United States is currently tracking nearly 45,000 objects in orbit, including approximately 18,800 pieces of space debris.

“I think it’s no exaggeration to say that this is the greatest existing threat to human use of outer space,” Sundar said. “We’re contaminating orbits to the point where it’s simply difficult to use them.”

He said he was “very optimistic” that changes in law and policy could reduce or eliminate threats to the rail system.

“We are very dependent on space infrastructure in many ways,” he said.

The International Space Station, about the size of a football field, is itself the subject of a deorbiting program because it is nearing the end of its useful life after more than two decades of continuous human habitation. NASA said the space station will continue to operate until at least 2030 and plans a “controlled return targeting remote uninhabited areas in the ocean.”

As for Otero, he said: “There are a lot of lessons to be learned from this incident. I hope no one else goes through this. It’s really scary for our family and we are so grateful that no one else goes through this.” .