フロリダ州民家に「宇宙ごみ」墜落か ＮＡＳＡが分析へ

【ワシントンＡＦＰ＝時事】米航空宇宙局（ＮＡＳＡ）は２日、フロリダ州の男性宅に墜落した物体を分析する考えを明らかにした。国際宇宙ステーション（ＩＳＳ）から廃棄された宇宙ごみ（スペースデブリ）の一部である可能性が高い。（写真は国際宇宙ステーション。米航空宇宙局提供）
　フロリダ州ネープルズ在住のアレハンドロ・オテロさんは、３月８日午後に物体が自宅の「屋根と２フロアを突き破り」し、あやうく息子に直撃するところだったとＸ（旧ツイッター）に投稿。ＮＡＳＡが２０２１年にＩＳＳから廃棄した、古いバッテリーを積んだパレットの一部ではないかと考えている。
　公式予測では、パレットは３月８日、地球の大気圏再突入の際に燃え尽きるとされていた。オテロさんは、自宅の防犯カメラが捉えた動画も併せて投稿。物体が屋根を突き破る音がしたのは、同日午後２時３４分だったとしている。
　ＮＡＳＡはＡＦＰの取材に対して、「住人の協力を得て物体を回収したので、フロリダ州のケネディ宇宙センターで早急に分析し、出どころの解明に努める」とし、「分析が完了次第、詳細な情報を公開する」と表明した。
　ＩＴ系ニュースサイト「アーズ・テクニカ」によれば、バッテリーはＮＡＳＡが所有しているが、日本のＩＳＳ補給機が運んだパレットに搭載されていたため、賠償請求は複雑になる可能性があるという。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/04/03-17:56）

NASA said Tuesday it was analyzing an object that crashed from the sky into a Florida man's home -- which could well be a piece of debris jettisoned from the International Space Station.
Alejandro Otero of Naples, Florida, posted on X that the item tore through the roof and went (through) 2 floors of his house, almost striking his son, on the afternoon of March 8.
He believes it was a piece of a cargo pallet containing old batteries that NASA ground control teams released from the orbital outpost in 2021.
It was supposed to burn up harmlessly over the Earth's atmosphere on March 8, according to official projections. Otero also posted a clip from his home Nest video camera where he said the sound of it crashing through his roof could be heard at 2:34 pm.
So that's 1934 UTC, which is very consistent with the Space Force estimate of reentry over the Gulf at 1929 UTC, wrote noted astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, in response. I think you may be right and it's a bit from the reentry of the EP-9 battery pallet.
The news was first reported by local news outlet winknews.com on March 15.
NASA collected an item in cooperation with the homeowner, and will analyze the object at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida as soon as possible to determine its origin, the space agency said in a statement to AFP on Tuesday. More information will be available once the analysis is complete.
A report by specialist news outlet Ars Technica said while the batteries were owned by NASA, they were attached to a pallet structure launched by Japan's space agency -- potentially complicating liability claims.
Past examples of manmade human space debris hitting Earth include part of a SpaceX Dragon capsule landing on an Australian sheep farm in 2022. Skylab, the United States' first space station, fell on Western Australia.
More recently, China has been criticized by NASA for allowing its giant Long March rockets to fall back to Earth after orbit.