When our country launches rockets, especially heavy-duty ones like the Long March 5, Western countries often propagate theories of threat, suggesting that debris could easily hit people or damage flora and fauna. However, reality tends to contradict these claims.
According to media reports, on March 8th of this year at 14:34, a "visitor from space" descended upon the home of Alejandro Otero in Florida, USA. But it wasn't an extraterrestrial being; rather, it was a piece of space junk that directly pierced through the house.
At that moment, this object fell from the sky, first puncturing the roof, then penetrating through two floors before crashing into the ground, emitting a tremendous noise.
Otero was away on a trip at the time, but his son was at home and narrowly escaped being struck.
Initially suspected to be a meteorite, upon extraction, it was found to be of human origin—a cylindrical metal object with only its top melted.
There's a large hole in the roof.
A large hole in the floor.
After investigation, it has been confirmed that this is a batch of old batteries discarded from the International Space Station.
In its earlier years, the ISS utilized outdated nickel-hydrogen batteries. Starting in 2018, they began replacing these with newer lithium-ion batteries. However, due to their large quantity, the replacement process involved transporting the new batteries up to the station in batches via spacecraft, while bringing down the old ones.
By 2020, after the final Japanese HTV cargo spacecraft departed, the last set of nickel-hydrogen batteries remained stranded on the space station.
The challenge lies in the immense size of the cargo pallet containing nine nickel-hydrogen batteries, equivalent in weight to a large SUV, totaling an estimated 2.6 tons in batteries alone.
A larger issue arises as subsequent spacecraft, including SpaceX's Dragon, cannot accommodate this payload. Additionally, leaving such a massive object indefinitely on the station is impractical due to space constraints.
The last HVT cargo spacecraft carrying nickel-hydrogen batteries
So, NASA decided to simply toss it away, expecting it to orbit Earth for two to three years before plunging into the atmosphere and completely burning up.
ESA also emphasized that there might be some debris falling to the ground, but the likelihood of hitting people is very low.
On March 11, 2021, when the International Space Station was operating about 418 kilometers above the western Pacific Ocean, NASA ground controllers manipulated the robotic arm on the International Space Station and threw it away directly.
It wasn't until March 8 of this year, after floating for a full three years, that this behemoth plunged into the atmosphere from over the Gulf of Mexico, burning intensely. Unfortunately, it didn't burn up completely, and the Otero family had some serious bad luck.
Just tossed it like that.
NASA's Kennedy Space Center has confirmed, after analyzing the remaining debris, that what fell was a fixed support post made of a chromium-nickel-iron alloy, weighing approximately 700 grams, with a height of about 10 centimeters and a diameter of about 4 centimeters.
As for why it didn't burn up completely, further analysis will be conducted by NASA and the International Space Station.
As for what compensation the Otero family received, that remains unknown.
Comparison of Wrecks with Intact Version
The amount of space debris is increasing.
