NASA officially acknowledges that the mysterious object that flew out of the sky and destroyed a residential area was trash dumped by the International Space Station

In March 2024, a mysterious cylindrical object flew into Florida, USA, and crashed through the roof of a private home. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) , which recovered and investigated the object, officially acknowledged in a statement on April 15 that 'the object that destroyed the private home was space debris discarded by the International Space Station (ISS) .'

NASA Completes Analysis of Recovered Space Object – Space Station
https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2024/04/15/nasa-completes-analysis-of-recovered-space-object/

Object that slammed into Florida home was indeed space junk from ISS, NASA confirms | Space
https://www.space.com/object-crash-florida-home-iss-space-junk-nasa-confirms

On March 8, 2024 local time, a mysterious object crashed into the home of Alejandro Otero, a resident of Florida. The object was cylindrical, about 10 cm long, and weighed about 900 g. It seemed to have fallen with considerable force, penetrating the roof and ceiling and penetrating the floor.

You can find out more about the object that crashed into Mr. Otero's home by reading the article below.

The mysterious object that suddenly flew in and broke through the roof of a private house may have been 'garbage dumped by the International Space Station' - GIGAZINE

Regarding the identity of the mysterious object that destroyed Otero's home, one theory has been put forward that it may be part of a battery pallet discarded by the ISS in 2021. In 2020, the ISS received new batteries shipped by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) , but due to a delay in the transportation operation, the last cargo pallet was left behind on the ISS, so in March 2021, the remaining batteries and cargo pallets were discarded overboard using a robotic arm.

Below is a photo of the battery pallet that was discarded at this time. It is reported that the total weight was about 2.6 tons and the size was about the same as a general refrigerator.

Here is a picture of EP-9 after jettison from ISS pic.twitter.com/VQYf9GjyeP

— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) March 7, 2024

The battery pallet drifted in space for a while, but re-entered the atmosphere on March 8, 2024. It is possible that some of the pallet that did not burn up during re-entry fell on Otero's home. Otero's family had removed and stored the object, so NASA retrieved it and analyzed it at the Kennedy Space Center .

On April 15, NASA released a statement confirming that the object that crashed at Otero's home was space debris discarded by the ISS. 'After investigation, we have determined that the debris is a NASA Flight Support System strut used to load batteries onto a cargo pallet,' NASA said in a statement.

The photo below shows the flight support equipment struts used to place the batteries on the cargo pallets, and the object that crashed into Otero's house. The space junk is made of Inconel , a nickel -based superalloy, and is said to weigh 1.6 pounds (about 0.7 kg), be 4 inches (about 10 cm) tall, and be 1.6 inches (about 4 cm) wide.

NASA said the piece of space debris was expected to burn up completely upon re-entering the atmosphere on March 8, and that it would conduct an investigation to determine why it didn't. 'We operate responsibly in low-Earth orbit and remain committed to mitigating as many risks as possible to protect people on Earth if we must release space debris,' NASA said.