When NASA’s space trash eventually floats back into Earth’s atmosphere it burns up due to the extreme heat, but not always apparently. Just this past March this piece of a cargo pallet did not burn up and instead came crashing through a family's home in Florida.
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00:00When NASA's space trash eventually floats back into Earth's atmosphere, it burns up
00:08due to extreme heat, but not always apparently.
00:11Just this past March, this piece of a cargo pallet did not burn up, and instead came crashing
00:16through a family's home in Florida.
00:18Now that family has brought a lawsuit against NASA, saying the piece of debris caused over
00:23$80,000 worth of damages.
00:25The bit of space trash weighed just over one and a half pounds, but it was traveling at
00:29extreme speeds after falling from space.
00:31At the time of the incident, the family's son was at home.
00:34Luckily, no one was injured as a result of the incident, with the family's lawyers saying
00:38about it, quote, space debris is a real and serious issue because of the increase in space
00:43traffic in recent years, adding that they are grateful that no one sustained physical
00:47injuries from this incident.
00:48But a near miss situation such as this could have been catastrophic.
00:53According to the family's attorney, NASA would be held responsible for an incident like this
00:57had it occurred in any other country as per the Space Liability Convention.
01:01However, when it happens domestically, the law becomes much more opaque.