The piece of debris that fell through the roof of Alejandro Otero (right) came from a support bracket ejected from the International Space Station.
A southwest Florida homeowner has officially filed a claim with NASA for damages caused by a piece of space junk that fell through his roof in March.
The lawsuit is unprecedented — apparently no one has brought such a claim against NASA before. How the space agency responds will set a precedent, and that could be important in a world of ever-increasing activity in orbit, with space debris and vehicles increasingly making uncontrolled re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere .
Alejandro Otero, owner of a Naples, Fla., home hit by the debris, was not home when part of a battery from the International Space Station crashed into his home on March 8. His son Daniel, 19, was at home but escaped injury. NASA has confirmed that the 1.6 kilogram object, made of Inconel metal alloy, was part of a battery ejected from the space station in 2021.
An attorney for the Otero family, Micah Nguyen Worthy, told Ars that she is seeking “over $80,000” from NASA for uninsured property damage, business interruption damages, emotional and mental suffering damages, and the cost of third-party assistance .
“We deliberately kept it very discreet because we didn’t want it to appear to NASA that my clients were looking for windfalls,” Worthy said.
The family has not filed a lawsuit against NASA, at least not yet. Worthy said she has had productive conversations with NASA legal representatives. She said the Otero family wants to be made whole for their losses, but also to set a precedent for future victims. “This is really the first legal action that has been filed to recover damages related to space debris,” Worthy said. “How NASA responds, in my opinion, will be fundamental to how future claims are handled.” It really changes the legal landscape.”
Who exactly is responsible for space debris?
If space debris from another country—say, the upper stage of a Chinese or Russian rocket—hit a family in the United States, the victims would be entitled to compensation under the Space Liability Convention, adopted by the space powers half a century ago. According to this treaty, the launching state is “absolutely” obliged to pay compensation for damage caused by its space objects on the surface of the Earth or to aircraft, as well as for damage due to its mistakes in space. In an international situation, NASA or another US government agency will negotiate on behalf of the victim for compensation.
In this case, however, the debris comes from the International Space Station: an old battery that NASA is responsible for. NASA completed a multi-year upgrade of the space station’s power system in 2020, installing a final batch of new lithium-ion batteries to replace aging nickel-hydrogen batteries that were reaching the end of their lives. During a spacewalk, this battery was mounted on a cargo pallet launched from Japan.
Officials originally planned to place pallets of the old batteries on a series of Japanese supply cargo ships for controlled, destructive returns over the ocean. But due to a series of delays, the last cargo pallet of old batteries missed its trip back to Earth, so NASA jettisoned the batteries to make an uncontrollable re-entry. NASA incorrectly believed that the batteries would burn up completely during reentry through the atmosphere.
Because this case falls outside the Outer Space Liability Convention, there is no mechanism for a US citizen to pursue claims against the US government for space debris damages. So, the Otero family is suing for the first time under the Federal Fallout Debris Claims Act. This tort allows someone to sue the US government if it was negligent. In this case, the negligence could be due to NASA’s miscalculation regarding the survival of enough debris to damage property on Earth.
NASA provided the Otero family with a form to file a claim, which Worthy said they did in late May. NASA now has six months to consider the claim. The space agency has several options. It can legally compensate the Otero family up to $25,000 for each of its claims based on the Federal Tort Claims Act (see legal code). If the agency wants to pay full restitution, it would require approval from the U.S. attorney general. Finally, NASA could reject the claims or make an unacceptable settlement offer — in which case the Oteros could file a federal lawsuit in Florida.
Ars has sought comment from NASA on the claims made and will update this story when we receive one.
