NASA Confirms Florida Space Junk Came From the ISS

NASA has confirmed the origin of a piece of space junk that crashed through an unwitting Floridian's home last month. After analyzing the object at the agency's Kennedy Space Center laboratory, scientists verified that it had come from EP-9, a pallet released from the International Space Station (ISS) in March 2021. 

Because the ISS doesn't offer a ton of storage space, agencies are constantly working with astronauts aboard the station to manage excess or defunct equipment. Sometimes spare parts are kept on external stowage platforms (ESPs), or pallets that hang onto the station's exterior. When parts need to be discarded, the ISS loads them onto external pallets to be jettisoned into the vast expanse of space. The pallets involved in both of these processes are known as EPs.

On March 11, 2021, the ISS released EP-9, a pallet packed with discarded nickel-hydrogen batteries. NASA mission controllers ...