When a Florida family filed a claim against NASA earlier this year over “space debris” that fell through their roof, it launched a potentially precedent-setting question: Who is liable if debris from space causes damage or injury?
No one was injured when a cylindrical object that was part of a pallet of spent batteries from the International Space Station crashed through the roof of Alejandro Otero and his family in what their attorney called a “near miss,” but the claim for more than $80,000 includes uninsured property damage and emotional distress.
Space junk—all the millions of pounds of objects left behind by humans in space, ranging from small nuts and bolts to pieces of defunct satellites—falls into Earth’s atmosphere every day. The vast majority of it burns up on its way down, but occasionally bits fall to the surface. They usually land in oceans, which cover most of the Earth’s surface, and other unpopulated places on land.
Very rarely have they caused damage or minor injury, but experts say the growing amount of clutter in space means such events will become more common in the future.
So who should pay in a case like the Oteros’, and how concerned should people be about space objects heading their way?
This is an “unprecedented” scenario, said Michelle LD Hanlon, director of the Center for Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law.
“It’s a very fascinating story,” Hanlon told USA TODAY. “I don’t think it will happen to you, but I hope it will make people think about space, because space is an integral part of our lives, and that will only become more so.”
Who pays if space debris causes damage on Earth?
There is an international treaty to deal with just such an event. It says that if space debris falls to Earth and causes damage or injury, whichever country launched the object is responsible, without anyone having to prove negligence caused it, Hanlon said.
However, it does not apply when a country’s own space object causes harm to its own citizens. The piece that came through the family’s Florida home from the space station was U.S. space junk, so the family had to file a claim through the Federal Tort Claims Act, the process by which U.S. citizens can sue the federal government — which requires them to provide evidence negligence, Hanlon said.
NASA has six months to respond to the claim. The agency could choose to settle with the family, Hanlon said, or the case could go to trial, and the outcome could set a precedent for space debris cases in the U.S. in the future.
“It’s a very interesting situation because there’s no way to actually prove negligence,” Hanlon said. She said it would be impossible to send inspectors to the space station to evaluate it and that NASA’s analyzes meant the pallet released in 2021 would orbit Earth for a few years before burning up at reentry into the atmosphere.
The room is becoming increasingly crowded with clutter, so this could happen again
NASA estimates that there are 17.6 million pounds of objects in Earth orbit, and the amount of space junk is only expected to increase.
Although the risk of being struck by debris is low (about 1 in 100 billion), there have been documented cases of minor injuries from falling space debris. In 1997, Oklahoman Lottie Williams was famously hit but not injured by a falling piece of an American Delta II rocket while she was in a park.
Waste in space:Why clutter in orbit is becoming a huge problem
“It’s going to happen again,” Hanlon said, referring to space debris liability claims. “It’s not like the sky is falling…but it will happen more and more.”
Contributing: Janet Loehrke and Gabe Hauari, USA TODAY; Dave Osborn, USA TODAY Network-Florida