NASA probes whether object that crashed into Florida home came from space station

NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — NASA says it’s investigating whether an object that crashed into the roof of a home in southwest Florida last month came from the international space station.

Workers for the space agency picked up the object from the homeowner in Naples, Florida, last week and took it to the Kennedy Space Center, across the state in Cape Canaveral, where it is being analyzed to determine its origin, NASA spokesman Josh Finch said Thursday in an email.

“More information will be available once the analysis is complete,” Finch said.

Space debris typically burns up while reentering Earth’s atmosphere.

The object pierced the roof of a home owned by Alejandro Otero on March 8. He told television station WINK that he was notified by his son about the crashing object while he was on vacation. He came back early to check it out and found a cylindrical-shaped object weighing nearly 2 pounds (0.91 kilograms) that had ripped through his ceiling and torn up the flooring.

“I was shaking. I was completely in disbelief. What are the chances of something landing on my house with such force to cause so much damage,” Otero said. “I’m super grateful that nobody got hurt.”