Piece of the Space Station crashed at home in the USA, NASA confirms

A house in Naples, in the United States, was hit by a part coming from the International Space Station (ISS) . The payload released by the space laboratory was supposed to have disintegrated in the re-entry into the atmosphere but a piece of it survived and reached the ground.

The story became public when Alejandro Otero published on his X, formerly Twitter, photos of the object that fell into his house and crossed two floors. The piece is being studied by the ISS and NASA to redefine the shipment of cargo launched from space to be decimated on its return to Earth.

Hello. Looks like one of those pieces missed Ft Myers and landed in my house in Naples.
Tore through the roof and went through 2 floors. Almost his my son.
Can you please assist with getting NASA to connect with me? I've left messages and emails without a response. pic.twitter.com/Yi29f3EwyV

— Alejandro Otero (@Alejandro0tero) March 15, 2024

In 2021, the Space Station replaced its old Nickel Hydride batteries with new Lithium-ion batteries. After the update, this payload with the replaced objects was launched to be destroyed when they caught fire upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

The total weight of the shipment was approximately 2.6 tons and it was expected to disintegrate on March 8, 2024, the date of its arrival in the Earth's atmosphere. However, a piece identified as support equipment used to charge batteries fell into a home in Naples, Florida.

The ISS is studying the piece to identify why it was not destroyed in the fire and to reset the calculations for the next loads sent for disposal in this way. Furthermore, NASA is investigating how objects heat up and disintegrate during reentry by comparing the original size of the piece with what reached the ground.