Lawsuit states NASA liable for roof damage caused by ‘space debris’

How likely is it that debris from an artificial satellite could crash onto the roof of an occupied home, especially in only one of three states where NASA also has launch centers? The Otero family from Naples, Florida will tell you this: it’s not zero.

Fragments left after the removal of aging nickel-metal hydride batteries from the International Space Station crashed into a South Florida home last March while its owner Alejandro Otero was on vacation. His son discovered the incident, which NASA confirmed occurred in April on the ISS.

Last Friday, a lawyer representing the family announced he was suing NASA for damages.

Mica Nguyen Worthy, a partner at Cranfill Sumner in Charlotte, North Carolina, who heads the firm’s aviation law practice group, said in a June 21 news release that the lawsuit seeks damages, including loss of uninsured property, business activity, emotional/mental anguish damages and costs of third party assistance required in the process.

“Space debris is a real and serious problem due to the increase in space traffic in recent years,” Worthy said in a press release. “My clients are seeking appropriate compensation to compensate for the stress and impact this event has had on their lives… but such a high-risk situation could have been devastating; Had the debris struck a few feet in a different direction, serious injury or death could not have occurred.”

NASA said the batteries, weighing about 5,800 pounds, were ejected from the International Space Station in March 2021 during station upgrades. The agency believed the materials would burn up upon re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere on March 8. However, some pieces of the nearly 3-ton equipment apparently survived and crashed onto the roof of the Otero home.

The space agency identified the debris as a pole used to secure batteries to a cargo pallet. NASA reportedly determined that the debris weighed 1.6 pounds, was four inches high and 1.6 inches in diameter. The agency also noted that thousands of pieces of debris are orbiting the Earth and generally disintegrate upon re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere under intense heat and pressure.

“Components that survive will most likely fall into oceans or other bodies of water, or into sparsely populated regions such as the Canadian Tundra, the Australian Outback, or Siberia in the Russian Federation,” NASA says. “Over the past 50 years, an average of one cataloged piece of debris has fallen to Earth (per day); “No serious injuries or significant property damage have been confirmed due to debris re-entering.”

The European Space Agency estimates that the risk of humans being hit by space debris is less than 1 in 100 billion people per year. However, Otero told WINK-TV shortly after the March 8 incident, a cylindrical object “pierced his ceiling” and tore up his floor.

“I was shaking. I was in complete disbelief. What is the risk of something falling on my house with such force that it would cause so much damage,” Otero said, adding that his son was two rooms away from where it hit.

On May 22, the family’s lawyer filed a lawsuit with NASA; the space agency has six months to respond.

Perhaps thanks to the Otero Saga, a line from Robert Burns’ 1785 poem “To a Mouse” remains as relevant today as when it was written 239 years earlier: “The best laid plans of mice and men.”