A US family whose home was hit by space debris earlier this year is seeking compensation from the American space agency NASA for property damage and mental anguish. The metallic cylinder slab punched a hole in the roof through two layers of ceiling in Alejandro Otero’s home in Naples in March. Back then, NASA said that the object was part of a 2.9-ton pallet of used batteries jettisoned from the International Space Station in March 2021. Mr Otero said his son was nearly injured by the impact. 

Now, law firm Cranfill Summer said in a press release that it filed a claim on behalf of Mr Otero and his family. It listed damages including non-insured property damage loss, business interruption, emotional/mental anguish and the costs for assistance from third parties. 

According to the BBC, Attorney Mica Nguyen Worthy said space debris “is a real serious issue because of the increase in space traffic in recent years”. “My clients are seeking adequate compensation to account for the stress and impact that this event had on their lives,” she added. 

Separately, speaking to CBS affiliate Wink-TV Mr Otero said that the space junk created a tremendous sound” as it blasted into his home. “I was shaking. I was completely in disbelief. What are the chances of something landing on my house with such force to cause so much damage,” Mr Otero said.

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The US space agency confirmed that the debris was from its flight support equipment. It was a metal support used to hold old batteries on a disposal pallet jettisoned from the station in 2021. While most of the pallet was expected to burn up in the atmosphere, this particular piece survived the fiery re-entry.

 “The hardware was expected to fully burn up during entry through Earth’s atmosphere on March 8, 2024. However, a piece of hardware survived and impacted a home in Naples, Florida,” the agency said. The ISS will “perform a detailed investigation” on how the debris survived burn-up, according to Nasa. 

The BBC reported that the agency now has 6 months to respond to Mr Otero’s claims. 

A man in North Carolina was left astonished after he found a massive, mysterious object on a remote hiking trail. According to the New York Post, Justin Clontz, who is a groundskeeper at a luxury campsite, said he was “shocked” to find the massive object covered in dense metal sheets held together by unearthly-looking bolts.

The debris, which appeared to be covered in burnt carbon fibre, is at least 3 feet wide, about an inch thick, and stands at nearly 4 feet tall, according to the outlet. Though the object was burned, the surrounding area showed no signs of damage.

“It’s once in a lifetime you know, it doesn’t happen every day. We don’t know what it is. We just know that it’s not from up here,” Mr Clontz told a local TV station.

He explained, ”I just tied a rope to it and drugged it out with a lawn mower. It’s a one in a million chance that it lands especially if it landed somewhere off the trail in the woods you’d have never found it, but it just happened to land on the trail.”

See the pic here:
 

Man astonished by finding mysterious object along NC mountain trail
byu/gaukonigshofen inNorthCarolina

Experts speculate the object could have fallen to earth from SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, according to Space.com. Astronomer Jonathon McDowell added on X that the debris ”definitely looks consistent with being a bit of the Crew-7 Dragon’s trunk which reentered on a path right over this location on Tuesday.”

Notably, The Dragon spacecraft consists of two main parts: the capsule and the trunk. The trunk supports the spacecraft during ascent and carries unpressurized cargo. Typically, the trunk burns up in the atmosphere during reentry, but occasionally, parts can survive and fall back to Earth.

The owner of the campsite Glamping Collective said that they plan on reaching out to aerospace experts to figure out what exactly it is and where it came from.

”Space debris was not on our list of things we expected to be having conversations about. The only thing we’ve been able to come up with is that it’s some type of space debris that fell. It doesn’t look like anything off of an aeroplane,” said Matt Bare, owner of The Glamping Collective.

No injuries were reported in connection with the suspected piece of space junk.