NASA confirms metal object that struck Fla. home was space station junk

A metal object that fell from the sky and tore through the roof of a Naples, Fla., home last month before getting lodged in a family’s wall was debris from a pallet of trash NASA flung into space three years ago, officials confirmed Monday.

The 1.6-pound cylindrical object that struck Alejandro Otero’s house, frightening his son as it smashed through the roof, was part of a 5,800-pound collection of old nickel hydride batteries released from the International Space Station in March 2021, NASA said in a news release. The object was expected to burn up when reentering Earth’s atmosphere. Instead, part of it survived reentry in an incident that sparked nationwide curiosity about whether it really was out-of-this-world junk.