back to article NASA confirms Florida house hit by a piece of ISS battery pack

NASA has confirmed that a piece of space junk that crashed through a Florida home in March was a fragment of a discarded ISS battery pallet. The pallet was jettisoned from the International Space Station (ISS) on January 11, 2021. On March 8, 2024, it made an uncontrolled re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. The hope was that …

  1. may_i Bronze badge

    Let's hope that NASA have also paid for the repairs to Alejandro's house and handsomely compensated him for the scare!

    1. Roj Blake Silver badge

      It will certainly be an interesting insurance claim!

      1. Randy Hudson

        Should get covered under the "Act of Goddard" clause

        1. NoneSuch Silver badge
          Headmaster

          "A spent booster from a Chinese Long March 5B, weighing in at around 20 metric tons, came down in uncontrolled fashion in 2021"

          According to the official history of the Chinese Communist Party, all Chinese rocket launches have been perfect. Your comment actually violates Chinese law for criticizing the Communist government.

          (And I hate to be pedantic, but there were two Long March 5B boosters that came down in 2021)

    2. Steve Button Silver badge
      Joke

      It's pretty clear what's going on here. NASA were aiming for Orange Florida Man, but didn't realise he's currently in court in New York (or somewhere?). They are clearly in league with the CIA and FBI and it's a deep state plot.

      Why can't you sheeple wake up and see what's really happening right under your eyes!?

      1. jmch Silver badge

        "Why can't you sheeple wake up and see what's really happening right under your eyes!?"

        Sheeple are asleep, just like orange Florida man.

        Also, best leave the sheeple asleep...

        (mandatory xkcd)

        https://xkcd.com/1013/

        1. NapTime ForTruth
          Coat

          "...Sheeple are asleep..."

          Sooo...ashleeple?

        2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
          Coat

          "Also, best leave the sheeple asleep..."

          Yes, there's nothing worse than woke sheeple :-)

  2. xyz123 Silver badge

    NASA will probably bill them for the damage to the metal casing.

    meanwhile Florida cops claim the junk was "coming right for them" so had to shoot the family dog.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh, look who made it :p

    https://boeing.mediaroom.com/2003-07-11-Boeing-Receives-145-Million-ISS-Battery-Contract

    1. Al fazed
      Thumb Up

      Don't

      make me laugh !

      ALF

  4. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    It gives a whole new meaning to fly tipping.

  5. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Trollface

    It happened in Florida

    Nothing to see here, move along. Watch out for the alligator on the sidewalk. Move along . . .

    1. Snake Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: It happened in Florida

      "Florida man gets space debris through ceiling, calls it 'Planned attack'".

      I'll await the new headline

  6. Alien Doctor 1.1
    Pint

    slightly off-topic

    I live a couple of miles away from Bristol (the original one, not some odd leftpondian town) almost under the accepted flight path: however, multiple times a day planes fly directly over the house - I live in constant fear of being Donnie Darko'd at some point, especially if it's a Boeing overlying us.

    Icon; because I need it

    1. MiguelC Silver badge
      Pint

      Re: slightly off-topic

      My city apartment is on the approach path of the local airport and planes fly over me 3-5 minutes apart all day long.

      If I was to worry about it I would've moved by now...

      Better not to worry, it's beer o'clock on the balcony!

    2. NapTime ForTruth

      Re: slightly off-topic

      Upvoted for the phrase "...being Donnie Darko'd".

    3. David Hicklin Bronze badge

      Re: slightly off-topic

      I think you are more likely to get hit by a falling stowaway as they fall out of the landing gear compartment as the planes lower their undercarriage for landing

      Although not heard about that happening for a while now

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: slightly off-topic

      A number of years ago, a friend of mine called me at home to make sure I was ok. Apparently a small aircraft had crashed less than half a mile from our apartment! I had no idea at the time; didn't even hear it.

      The pilot died in the crash, but had made a heroic attempt to safely land, and did succeed in missing the 5-lane road full of rush-hour traffic. He skidded into a parking lot right next to it, ensuring no one else was injured.

    5. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: slightly off-topic

      Watch out for falling blue ice! As with yellow snow, don't eat it.

  7. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
  8. Gene Cash Silver badge

    So close

    I'm not too far from Naples.

    I could have had a cool new doorstop and I sure as hell wouldn't have told anyone about it.

    1. Marty McFly Silver badge
      Pirate

      Re: So close

      Hehehe, I'm not that far from January's Boeing door incident. I had a similarly deviant thought. So you want to come on my property to search for a door you dropped....what is it worth to you?

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Inconel

    While the engineers in aerospace tend to robustly overbuild things, was it really necessary to include big hunks of heat resistant super-alloy?

    Hopefully their updated debris model will keep them from accidentally re-creating Project Thor(actually, that was also Boeing...)

    1. Spazturtle Silver badge

      Re: Inconel

      This battery pack was meant to be returned to Earth in a capsule, but due to a Soyuz exploding on take off a few years back and Starliner being continually delayed they didn't have any capacity for it.

      1. Jellied Eel Silver badge

        Re: Inconel

        This battery pack was meant to be returned to Earth in a capsule,

        I kinda want to know if it was originally launched from Florida, and if it was simply trying to get home.

        1. Spazturtle Silver badge

          Re: Inconel

          I believe it launched from Japan.

  10. Scott 26

    Wasn't this the start of Dead Like Me

    (Except it was MIr's toilet seat)

  11. trindflo Silver badge

    Maybe try to aim better than a drunken man?

    Is there no way to aim this stuff? It doesn't have to be a perfect shot, but it seems like it should be possible to make an reentry vehicle to guide debris into an approximate place in the ocean. Preferably something better than what they did with skylab (which was to just put it over the southern hemisphere because that's mostly ocean).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Maybe try to aim better than a drunken man?

      I wonder how many orbits it made before reaching ground. I guess it would take quite a power punch to counteract the orbiting speed - not something they had prepared for or were willing to create an emergency budget for.

  12. I am David Jones Silver badge

    Colour me curious

    What sort of trajectories does space junk have when it hits terra firma? Going through a roof and two floors means there is a big vertical component but I’d have expected the horizontal component to be significant.

    And how does it compare to a Boeing door plug?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Colour me curious

      A balllistic curve eventually sheds most of its horizontal speed and gravity takes over.

      1. I am David Jones Silver badge

        Re: Colour me curious

        Well, obviously that will be the case for some stuff. Extinction-level meteors will sear through the atmosphere as they please, and some little things may float down to earth like an autumn leaf. I’m just interested to know what the case is for typical space junk items.

  13. Al fazed
    Devil

    Here on Earth

    we tell our kids to take their rubbish home with them.

    In the USA NASA blow a trumpet when a fucking robot chucks into Earth orbit a "pallet" carrying tons of their space rubbish. ALSO, knowing full well that it will rain down on all of our heads - as dust and ash if we are fucking well lucky. Lumps of heavy metal if we are not !

    And then they go passing the blame onto one of the few companies that get most of the big bucks for big the deals to build this shite in the first place. Again knowing full well that they (BOING) continually build very expensive shite - to toss into the air ..

    With the current political climate in the USA, I'm fairly surprised that they didn't arrange for it to drop on Gazza, or Russia, or Haiti, ........or China.

    Just saying......

    Pity it didn't land on the UK Houses of Parliament, it might have made an improvement to it's workings, or needed an additional passage adding to the Rwanda Bill.

    ALF

    1. may_i Bronze badge

      Re: Here on Earth

      Drop the politics for $deity's sake. This is a tech site, not somewhere for you to air your political grievances and attract more off topic comments.

      1. Jan 0 Silver badge

        Re: Here on Earth

        Never mind the politics, leave our sozzled football star out of it!

    2. Version 1.0 Silver badge
      Alien

      Re: Here on Earth

      Al fazed, it didn't arrive on November 5th. I think it's interesting that the Earth is shooting so much stuff into space and seeing so many items fall back to our planet even when comets go past us. But we only see a few rocks (meteorites) from the rest of the universe, never any old alien cell-phone batteries thrown away in the universe.

      We throw some much trash around the universe but see nothing that we didn't create.

      1. Toni the terrible

        Re: Here on Earth

        Well there was Rozwell?

        1. Conundrum1885

          Re: Here on Earth

          Last I heard, it was a weather balloon filled with swamp gas trapped in a thermal pocket and reflecting the light from Venus.

          Just one more thing, An eye exam.

          <flash>

  14. Mt.Zoin

    I see a lot of nails I've already countersunk,working their own heads back up away from the material and then pulled,scraped and sold for base alloys.

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