Space Junk Is Now Landing On People's Homes and NASA Is Getting Sued

Dracula never expected that stray wooden spike from space!

Wait?! What?! A 10kg piece of debris fell FROM SPACE and hit a kid in the HEAD...and he got just ...a bruise?

Decades ago a piece of NASA space debris landed in a city in California. The city sent NASA a bill for littering and NASA paid it. I think it was $500.

Time to start a Space Debris insurance company. How are you going to prove what nation, company, entity is responsible?

Roofs will need to be rated for space junk in the future.

Apparently the US is obligated to pay damages when debris hits other countries, but it doesn't have to pay anything when it lands on American soil. ETA: didn't think this would get so many responses. I'm primarily talking about the Space Liability Convention under the Outer Space Treaty of 1972. It's between States. If China drops something on your house, you have to ask your government to sue China. The only time this has happened so far I think is when Canada sued the Soviets over a nuclear powered satellite that fell on Canada. USSR did pay expenses for clean up. On US soil, that international treaty doesn't apply. There is no automatic liability so the guy down in Florida will have to sue. Besides the home repairs his insurance company quickly paid for, he's going for unspecified other damages, like emotional damage or something. I'd say good luck getting the US government to accept liability for that.

I'll balance it against my chances of being struck by a moron who is texting or drinking while driving.

Back in the late 70s, I was working an offshore supply boat, on station as a fire suppression unit tied up alongside a oil platform. As third officer, Chief Engineer, I almost always "had the wheel" for graveyard shift. And boy are the stars spectacular out away from light pollution! Anyway, one night I watched a satellite re-entry where about 4-5 pieces were big enough to splash. Even at about a mile away, the splash was visible, so they were big enough to hit hard. They came down almost in a group, and I remember thinking that all those pieces of junk could have sunk us. I guess I was just lucky.👀

All satellites that are launched must be capable of either safely deorbiting themselves or ascending to a graveyard orbit. Satellites that fail to do this should be fined, and any damages they cause must be compensated for.

In 1961, the USA paid $2 million in indemnity to a Cuban whose cow was killed by rocket fragments. There is a rock song in spanish about the event: "Aquella solitaria vaca cubana" (that solitary cuban cow).

But it's going to get complicated because it's not just NASA. ESA, the Russians/Soviets, Japan, China and now private firms are putting stuff up there. There's going, or I guess already is a new field of satellite forensics.

Before launching wooden satellites: "My house got hit by falling space debris." After launching wooden satellites: "My house got hit by flaming space debris." Hopefully not the same house though...

I love scientists' ability to say we didn't or don't know. That is so intelligent and healthy. You are wonderful Anton! Thank you for sharing and teaching us.

Honestly 80k for a roof, probably a couple walls, and some tile floor... thats about right

A small child hit on the forehead by a 10k aluminium ball and walked away with a bruise? I think his old man found the ball and thought "I could be quids in here" and hit his son on the noggin.

Thanks Anton for keeping us updated on this very important information! You are Awesome!! 😊❤

A couple years ago, we had a house here that got hit by a meteor. The homeowner was VERY lucky. He was watching TV in his living room, and had decided to go to bed. He had taken a shower and was just drying off when he heard this huge crash from his living room. He thought that someone was breaking into his house. He found that there was a hole smashed right through his house. The meteor was a little bigger than a softball, and it had smashed through his roof, went through the ceiling of the living room, and smashed the chair, he was previously sitting in, to pieces. From there, it went through the floor and into his basement where it became imbedded in his basement floor. He's lucky it didn't start a fire like what happened when a meteor struck a house in Texas last year or the year before. That guy lost his entire house. It went up like matchsticks. And with man made space debris in such an abundance, we're going to be hearing more and more stories like this, except involving man made objects.

After the one spacex launch (that exploded) there was a shower of junk falling around our neighborhood here in texas. It sounded like hail, so no one noticed because we get hail all the time.

0:57 Ah...I see that piece of space debris also managed to fossilize a small frog sitting on top of it, as it came hurtling down through the atmosphere lol...well at least Kermit made it down in one piece...

So, Donnie Darko is already living through 3 separate timelines.....