The analysis confirms what many already suspected: an object weighing about two kilograms that penetrated the roof of a house in Florida on March 8, 2024, actually came from the International Space Station (ISS). According to NASA, the object is the remains of a support site, who tied the discarded battery pack to a pallet. The battery and pallet were separated from the International Space Station on March 21, 2021, to burn up upon re-entry into the atmosphere. However, as the authorities have now discovered, this did not entirely happen. The approximately ten-centimeter-long bolt made of extremely durable superalloy broke away from its holder, but survived the fall through the Earth's atmosphere and melted only slightly.
When huge pieces of debris enter the Earth's atmosphere, they usually fall intentionally over uninhabited areas. But in the case of the dropped pallet, the uncertainty was greater than usual. With a small probability, the space debris could have reached Germany. However, experts expected the battery to be completely destroyed. NASA will now conduct a detailed study of the re-entry process to find out why the object survived the fall. says the blog post about the incident. Predicting whether and how objects in the atmosphere will disintegrate and burn up is extremely complex. The new results from the surviving site will also likely be used to better simulate future debris entering the atmosphere using computer models. However, it is now clear who should compensate for the damage. The United Nations Outer Space Treaty states that the country of origin of the piece of debris is responsible – and in the case of the battery pack, it is the United States of America.
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