Family asks NASA for $80,000 for object that fell on their home: How dangerous is space junk?

It was on March 8 when the strange object fell into Alejandro Otero’s home in Naples, Florida. “It went through the roof and two floors,” he wrote on his X account, and warned that it almost hit his son. A few days later, NASA collected the fragment for evaluation.

The result confirmed that they were remains from the International Space Station (ISS).

“Based on analysis, the agency determined that the debris was a NASA flight support equipment strut used to load the batteries onto the cargo platform,” the agency said in a statement.

It weighs 0.7 kilograms, measures 10 centimetres and 4 centimetres in diameter. It is also made of an Inconel metal alloy.

A few months after this incident, the Otero family is demanding $80,000 in compensation from NASA, reports the AFP news agency. The US government agency now has six months to respond to their claim.

“My clients are seeking appropriate compensation that takes into account the stress and impact this incident has had on their lives,” said attorney Mica Nguyen Worthy of Cranfill Sumner, who is handling the case.

While there were no injuries or deaths from the falling object, the lawyer said a near miss situation like this could have been catastrophic and caused “emotional distress.”

Space junk: a problem

Alejandro Otero’s family’s defense team has pointed out that the problem of space debris has grown along with the increase in space traffic. In this sense, they believe that NASA’s response could set a precedent.

The United Nations had already placed the problem of space debris among the six threats that could destroy systems essential to human life.

In 2023, it said in a report that the accumulation of space debris threatens to create chain collisions that could render Earth’s orbit unusable for satellites, which are used to warn of climate disasters.

“Space junk is something that is made by humans, that is orbiting and that has no use, basically,” says Myriam Pajuelo, professor at the Department of Physics at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. In communication with Trade specifies that this garbage could be pieces of ships or parts such as screws and batteries.

When these objects fall, the atmosphere is responsible for disintegrating them, although there are some that do not disintegrate and this may depend on the speed at which they travel, what part of the atmosphere they come from and what they are made of.

According to a report by CNN, there are about 30,000 objects larger than a baseball hurtling toward Earth, ten times faster than a bullet. This was revealed after samples of the stratosphere were taken by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

For specialist Myriam Pajuelo, although the probability of an object falling on a person is low, it is still a serious issue.

“It is a problem because the probability of something falling is not zero, and on the other hand, the amount of garbage is increasing, the number of satellites and probes is increasing. For example, some of these ships have batteries and they are thrown away when they are no longer useful. Some of these parts may contain something toxic,” he warns.

Possible solutions

What solution can be given to this problem?

Pajuelo points out that on the one hand, the objects that are released can be monitored so that they do not fall into inhabited areas. This is made easier when the objects are larger.

But there is also a legal aspect that must be updated, since it was in 1971 that the United Nations determined the responsibilities for space objects, in the Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects.

“If there are ways to mitigate, we will necessarily have to legislate better because there are more and more things orbiting, there is more and more space junk; so the probability of things falling will increase,” adds the professor.

Meanwhile, in February, National Geographic reported that NASA presented the first phase of the new NASA Space Sustainability Strategy, in order to ensure that the space surrounding the Earth is cleaned up and that space resources are shared equitably and sustainably. Space agencies from different countries are taking an interest in this situation.