Straight from the ISS: 2-lb object breaks thru home
18 Apr 2024
Weather & Radar
NASA analyzed the object and it turns out it was from a battery packet dropped by the ISS.
Specifically, this dense metal object was a set of depleted batteries attached to a cargo pallet from the International Space Station. The pallet was supposed to come back to Earth in a controlled manner. Unfortunately, there were some delays, and the cargo pallet missed the trip back to Earth. NASA decided to let the batteries go in 2021 to reenter our planet unguided, and they were supposed to burn as they plunged through the atmosphere, but that didn’t happen. (Yes, without propulsion the batteries can drift in orbit for three years until aerodynamic drag pulls it into the atmosphere).