NASA sued after space junk from ISS crashes into Florida family's home

[Admin]

A Florida family is suing NASA after discarded components from the International Space Station crashed through their house.

NASA sued after space junk from ISS crashes into Florida family's home : Read more

 

[COLGeek]

Oops! But one heck of a family story (legend)!

 

[Mergatroid]

So what happens if someone dies? Is it not time to update rules and laws regarding space garbage?
If someone dies, "oops,we thought it would burn up" just isn't good enough. These things should only be thrown overboard if they have strict calculations showing they will land in the ocean if they don't bun up. If they cannot make this guarantee, then it's high time they stopped disposing of hardware in this fashion. I don't think anyone on this planet agreed to live with the threat of this stuff falling on them.

 

[COLGeek]

So what happens if someone dies? Is it not time to update rules and laws regarding space garbage?
If someone dies, "oops,we thought it would burn up" just isn't good enough. These things should only be thrown overboard if they have strict calculations showing they will land in the ocean if they don't bun up. If they cannot make this guarantee, then it's high time they stopped disposing of hardware in this fashion. I don't think anyone on this planet agreed to live with the threat of this stuff falling on them.

I hear you. What about some other object from space, like a meteorite? Theoretically possible.

International conventions to work this would be key to making useful. Lots of stuff from lots of nations floating about in orbit.

 

[Cisventure Astronot]

So what happens if someone dies? Is it not time to update rules and laws regarding space garbage?
If someone dies, "oops,we thought it would burn up" just isn't good enough. These things should only be thrown overboard if they have strict calculations showing they will land in the ocean if they don't bun up. If they cannot make this guarantee, then it's high time they stopped disposing of hardware in this fashion. I don't think anyone on this planet agreed to live with the threat of this stuff falling on them.

I agree. But, to be fair, they probably had "strict calculations showing they will" burn up completely in Earth's atmosphere.

I hope that the Otero family is compensated for this otherwise-crippling disaster.

 

[jeb123]

obviously, NASA needs to get the checkbook out.

 

[Coinneach]

Could we launch resources from the moon with electromagnetic railguns?

What does a nuclear aircraft carrier have to do with the moon?

www.space.com

Looks as if we'll soon have mining containers from the moon raining down on us too

 

[Unclear Engineer]

It seems silly that this family would need to hire a lawyer and sue NASA. NASA has admitted that it is a piece of there trash that they intentionally jettisoned to reenter the atmosphere. There needs to be a compensation fund for damages that are indisputably caused by NASA.

 

[nemodot]

Newbie question here: How do you deorbit ISS trash without a thruster?

 

[Classical Motion]

It's in the returned cargo and experiments. The trash can be left in the service module to burn up, or can be brought back down with capsule. In all likelihood they label and screen feces. Urine is recycled. Disposables are brought back or burned up on re-entry.

I'm not an expert but there are many articles and reports about this thru the years. And it's probably under constant review and updated.

But I don't believe they litter. They have to dodge litter every once in a while.

 

[Unclear Engineer]

In the case of this particular debris, I don't think a cargo ship was involved in the reentry. I think it was just a pallet of used batteries that was literally shoved away from the station by the robotic arm, in the retrograde direction. See https://spaceflightnow.com/2021/03/...station-will-stay-in-orbit-two-to-four-years/ .

 

[Unclear Engineer]

Adding to my reply #8, it seems NASA does have a system to pay for damages without filing a lawsuit. The damaged party needs to file a claim under the Federal Torts Claim Act, which gives NASA six months to reply to the claim. In fact, that is what has happened. It was erroneously reported in the media as a lawsuit.

Under a space treaty, the Liability Convention, the United States would be liable for damages had the debris hit another country. But that treaty liability does not apply here because the damage took place in the United States. So, the Federal Torts Claim Act is the process inside the United States for debris created by the United States.

I am wondering how well that process would work if one of North Korea's satellites ended up going through the roof of someone's house in the U.S..

 

[Cisventure Astronot]

Newbie question here: How do you deorbit ISS trash without a thruster?

There's actually a small amount of air in outer space, thus there's drag. The drag makes things deorbit slowly (which is why the ISS gets reboosted periodically), so you'd only need to drop the trash.

PS: @nemodot, Your question might have been seen by more (and answered quicker) if it was it's own thread.