1 00:00:02,560 --> 00:00:04,300 Hello and welcome to the program. You 2 00:00:04,300 --> 00:00:06,420 know, a full warning in this episode, we're asking, 3 00:00:06,620 --> 00:00:09,280 can NASA be that dumb? That's 4 00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:12,280 correct. Can NASA be that dumb? Of 5 00:00:12,280 --> 00:00:15,560 course, we're talking about this latest chunk of space 6 00:00:15,560 --> 00:00:20,160 junk that has fallen from outer space and actually 7 00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:23,100 went through a guy's house and they're trying to 8 00:00:23,100 --> 00:00:27,140 determine if it was NASA's fault. This 9 00:00:27,140 --> 00:00:29,620 article comes to us from watching the post .com. It 10 00:00:29,620 --> 00:00:33,020 says a piece of metal tore through his roof. Was 11 00:00:33,020 --> 00:00:35,020 it junk from a space station? And 12 00:00:35,020 --> 00:00:38,000 the article is by Daniel Wu, written April 4th, 13 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:41,100 2004. It's got a pretty nice picture 14 00:00:41,100 --> 00:00:43,720 of this hunk of space junk here. I'll 15 00:00:43,720 --> 00:00:46,200 put the links up at the Kofi and the locals' 16 00:00:46,620 --> 00:00:50,240 websites. It says Alejandro Otero was 17 00:00:50,240 --> 00:00:53,820 traveling overseas when he received a panic call from 18 00:00:53,820 --> 00:00:57,220 his son back home. He goes, Dad, are you guys 19 00:00:57,220 --> 00:01:00,660 sitting down? Otero recalled an object tumbling 20 00:01:00,660 --> 00:01:04,599 from the sky had struck Otero's Naples Florida house 21 00:01:04,599 --> 00:01:08,300 with a bang that startled his son. Otero 22 00:01:08,300 --> 00:01:10,920 cut his trip short and returned home to find a 23 00:01:10,920 --> 00:01:14,620 hole torn through his roof and second story floor. The 24 00:01:14,620 --> 00:01:17,500 bewildered father searched for the culprit and found 25 00:01:17,500 --> 00:01:21,720 an unusual projectile, a dense cylindrical piece of 26 00:01:21,720 --> 00:01:24,740 charred metal, a little smaller than a soup can 27 00:01:24,740 --> 00:01:28,620 lodged in a wall. Now I have to imagine this 28 00:01:28,620 --> 00:01:31,580 thing falling from space like that must have been 29 00:01:31,580 --> 00:01:33,900 going pretty fast when it hit that house. Just 30 00:01:33,908 --> 00:01:37,520 it's just it's really frightening to imagine what 31 00:01:37,520 --> 00:01:38,720 could have happened if somebody would have been 32 00:01:38,720 --> 00:01:41,640 struck by this thing. I mean, instant death. It 33 00:01:41,640 --> 00:01:44,600 didn't look like a normal piece of debris to Otero. 34 00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:46,380 He insisted I knew it was 35 00:01:46,380 --> 00:01:49,720 from outer space. Otero's theory might not be far 36 00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:51,380 off. He learned from searching 37 00:01:51,380 --> 00:01:55,420 online that a pallet of old batteries, jettison from 38 00:01:55,420 --> 00:01:59,280 the International Space Station in 2021 had been 39 00:01:59,280 --> 00:02:02,160 expected to re -enter Earth's atmosphere on March 40 00:02:02,160 --> 00:02:05,000 8th the day his house was struck. He 41 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:07,560 connected with astrophysicists on social 42 00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:10,419 media and together they wondered had his house been 43 00:02:10,419 --> 00:02:14,020 hit by a garbage disposal from orbit several years in 44 00:02:14,020 --> 00:02:17,680 the making. Now just think about this. NASA 45 00:02:17,680 --> 00:02:19,220 has all the stuff floating around up here. They're 46 00:02:19,220 --> 00:02:21,720 just dumping this stuff off, not a care in the 47 00:02:21,720 --> 00:02:23,900 world. They know it's going to hit, 48 00:02:24,020 --> 00:02:26,100 you know, planet Earth somewhere. I 49 00:02:26,100 --> 00:02:27,980 suppose they figure, well, you know, what's Earth's 50 00:02:27,980 --> 00:02:29,680 like, what, two thirds, three quarters of water? 51 00:02:29,800 --> 00:02:31,120 It'll probably land in the ocean 52 00:02:31,120 --> 00:02:33,960 somewhere. Nobody'll notice, but not necessarily. 53 00:02:34,740 --> 00:02:36,040 You know, you have what, six 54 00:02:36,040 --> 00:02:37,980 billion people on this planet. It's 55 00:02:37,980 --> 00:02:40,260 bound to hit someone someday. And 56 00:02:40,260 --> 00:02:42,840 it just about did right through this guy's house, 57 00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:46,580 through the second floor, down to the first floor. 58 00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:48,580 And does NASA care? No. 59 00:02:48,860 --> 00:02:51,860 Did they warn anybody? Hey, everybody be on the lookout 60 00:02:51,860 --> 00:02:54,360 for falling space junk on March 8th. Nope. 61 00:02:54,760 --> 00:02:57,680 Not a word. Silence. It was compelling enough to 62 00:02:57,680 --> 00:02:59,920 warrant NASA's attention. Investigators 63 00:02:59,920 --> 00:03:02,960 from the agency came to Atera's house last week to 64 00:03:02,960 --> 00:03:05,700 retrieve the metal cylinder and determine whether it 65 00:03:05,700 --> 00:03:09,420 came from the ISS. Yeah, not a minute too late. 66 00:03:10,140 --> 00:03:12,240 It's unreal, Atera said. NASA 67 00:03:12,240 --> 00:03:15,080 spokesperson, Josh Finch, said the agency is 68 00:03:15,080 --> 00:03:17,720 analyzing the object in Florida's key space center 69 00:03:17,720 --> 00:03:20,840 to determine its origin. If the debris did come from 70 00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:24,120 the ISS, Atera may have just been the victim of 71 00:03:24,120 --> 00:03:26,260 astronomically bad luck. It's 72 00:03:26,260 --> 00:03:29,300 common for NASA to toss its trash into space where 73 00:03:29,300 --> 00:03:32,060 it usually is vaporized upon re -entering the 74 00:03:32,060 --> 00:03:35,260 Earth's atmosphere. Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist 75 00:03:35,260 --> 00:03:38,000 at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 76 00:03:38,260 --> 00:03:41,220 wrote in an email, you know, the go to a 77 00:03:41,220 --> 00:03:44,260 completely new place or man has never been. And 78 00:03:44,260 --> 00:03:46,780 the first thing they do is fill it with trash. 79 00:03:47,640 --> 00:03:49,720 Disgusting, actually. But 80 00:03:49,720 --> 00:03:52,380 the load of space garbage whose re -entry coincided 81 00:03:52,380 --> 00:03:54,860 with Atera's house being struck was particularly 82 00:03:54,860 --> 00:04:01,520 noteworthy. The haul, a 2 .9 ton pallet of 83 00:04:01,520 --> 00:04:03,920 old nickel hydrogen batteries. Isn't 84 00:04:03,920 --> 00:04:07,080 that awesome? 6 ,000 pounds of batteries was 85 00:04:07,080 --> 00:04:09,980 the heaviest object ever jettisoned from the ISS 86 00:04:09,980 --> 00:04:14,920 when it was flung into space in March 2021. Gizmo 87 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:17,260 reported. Yeah, I know we've got satellites 88 00:04:17,260 --> 00:04:19,779 around here and we got people going up and down 89 00:04:19,779 --> 00:04:22,200 all the time. And I know there's a lot of 90 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:25,000 people that live on planet Earth, but we've got 6 ,000 91 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:27,540 pounds of nickel hydrogen batteries. So 92 00:04:27,540 --> 00:04:29,500 let's just dump them off. The 93 00:04:29,500 --> 00:04:31,700 worst than some idiot driving down the highway 94 00:04:31,700 --> 00:04:34,620 just dumping their garbage out because what these guys 95 00:04:34,620 --> 00:04:36,120 were doing could be deadly. But 96 00:04:36,120 --> 00:04:38,380 she noticed the whole theme of the article here. Well, 97 00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:40,300 that's just how we do things. And 98 00:04:40,300 --> 00:04:42,220 if you're a little person and you get in the way, 99 00:04:42,380 --> 00:04:44,320 well, that's just too bad. NASA 100 00:04:44,320 --> 00:04:46,860 had intended to load the old batteries in an 101 00:04:46,860 --> 00:04:49,960 unmanned cargo spacecraft for disposal, but a failed 102 00:04:49,960 --> 00:04:53,420 Soyuz rocket launch in 2008 snarled the schedule of 103 00:04:53,420 --> 00:04:56,260 spacewalks and departures from the ISS and forced 104 00:04:56,260 --> 00:04:58,800 astronauts to release the pallet into space on its 105 00:04:58,800 --> 00:05:01,880 own, according to Gizmodo. Well, 106 00:05:01,900 --> 00:05:04,400 isn't that spatial? Blame it on the Russians. You 107 00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:07,120 know, there's an old saying, poor planning on 108 00:05:07,120 --> 00:05:09,940 your part. Does not constitute an emergency 109 00:05:09,940 --> 00:05:13,440 on my part. And NASA seems to be full of 110 00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:16,340 poor planning. That pallet was expected to 111 00:05:16,340 --> 00:05:19,260 orbit Earth harmlessly for several years before burning 112 00:05:19,260 --> 00:05:21,300 up in the atmosphere, according to a NASA news 113 00:05:21,300 --> 00:05:24,400 release from 2021. Oh yeah, they've done a good 114 00:05:24,400 --> 00:05:26,840 job with that. The US space force tracked the 115 00:05:26,840 --> 00:05:29,820 pallet as it orbited the planet over the next few 116 00:05:29,820 --> 00:05:32,740 years, McDowell said. In early March, McDowell 117 00:05:32,740 --> 00:05:36,000 tweeted that the pallet was predicted to re -enter 118 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:39,900 Earth's atmosphere around March 8th and that some 119 00:05:39,900 --> 00:05:43,600 pieces of debris might survive entry. Germany's 120 00:05:43,600 --> 00:05:45,480 federal office for civil protection and disaster 121 00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:47,840 relief issued a warning about the incoming debris, 122 00:05:48,220 --> 00:05:50,360 according to space .com. Well, 123 00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:52,440 what happens if this thing hits the Pentagon or the 124 00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:54,820 White House or a nuclear power plant? I 125 00:05:54,820 --> 00:05:57,280 mean, can you see how careless these people are 126 00:05:57,280 --> 00:06:01,300 and how incompetent they are? Ateros 127 00:06:01,300 --> 00:06:03,180 son wasn't hurt when the metal object took his 128 00:06:03,180 --> 00:06:06,260 house. Ateros said Ateros was compelled 129 00:06:06,260 --> 00:06:09,000 to investigate the source of the mystery projectile. 130 00:06:09,360 --> 00:06:10,700 He conversed with McDowell on 131 00:06:10,700 --> 00:06:13,680 social media and eventually connected with NASA. The 132 00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:17,280 agency represented his visit to his house March 28th to 133 00:06:17,280 --> 00:06:18,900 retrieve the metal object. He 134 00:06:18,908 --> 00:06:21,680 said, I don't hear a word about them taking 135 00:06:21,680 --> 00:06:24,260 responsibility. McDowell said he thinks there's a 136 00:06:24,260 --> 00:06:27,560 good chance the projectile that struck Ateros home did 137 00:06:27,560 --> 00:06:31,240 originate from the ISS based on tracking of the 138 00:06:31,240 --> 00:06:34,720 space junk's descent. He said, duh, debris was 139 00:06:34,720 --> 00:06:37,440 probably scattered over a few hundred miles from 140 00:06:37,440 --> 00:06:41,140 midgolf to Florida. McDowell said, I think very likely 141 00:06:41,140 --> 00:06:43,880 that Ateros object is indeed from the pallet. 142 00:06:44,060 --> 00:06:45,040 What if the thing would have 143 00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:48,120 hit a passenger plane in midflight? Would 144 00:06:48,120 --> 00:06:50,080 that have been nice, wouldn't it? Well, 145 00:06:50,180 --> 00:06:52,140 we, you know what, we would never hear about it. 146 00:06:52,180 --> 00:06:53,280 We would just be told, well, 147 00:06:53,580 --> 00:06:55,860 you know, it's probably a boing. After 148 00:06:55,860 --> 00:06:58,020 the investigation, Ateros would like to keep his 149 00:06:58,020 --> 00:07:00,120 cosmic souvenir. I asked for that a hundred 150 00:07:00,120 --> 00:07:01,940 times. He said, Ateros said that, 151 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:04,280 well, NASA's representatives were shocked and apologetic 152 00:07:04,280 --> 00:07:07,140 about his experience. They told him they first needed 153 00:07:07,140 --> 00:07:10,060 to confirm the debris was in fact the agency's 154 00:07:10,060 --> 00:07:12,120 property. That's why they took it. They 155 00:07:12,120 --> 00:07:13,940 did not confirm whether they would return the 156 00:07:13,940 --> 00:07:16,140 object to Ateros. He said, no, he'll never see 157 00:07:16,140 --> 00:07:17,960 that again. That's my guess. I'd 158 00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:20,660 love to keep it for all kinds of reasons, but I'm 159 00:07:20,660 --> 00:07:22,220 not holding my breath. Ateros 160 00:07:22,220 --> 00:07:24,060 said, you know what, he would have been a lot 161 00:07:24,060 --> 00:07:26,980 smarter to put this thing on eBay, I think as NASA 162 00:07:26,980 --> 00:07:29,900 investigates, Ateros is also working to fix his house. 163 00:07:30,360 --> 00:07:31,660 He has contacted his insurance 164 00:07:31,660 --> 00:07:34,120 company about repairing the roof. I 165 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:37,860 imagine they'll call that an act of God. Sadly, 166 00:07:38,260 --> 00:07:41,100 I went on the website and filed the claim and had to 167 00:07:41,100 --> 00:07:43,560 click on what kind of damage it was. Ateros 168 00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:46,360 said, there was no option that matched. I 169 00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:50,900 clicked other. Wow. Now that's such a great 170 00:07:50,900 --> 00:07:53,820 case and a pretty decent article how NASA treats 171 00:07:53,820 --> 00:07:58,220 taxpayers, how NASA reacts when it fails. And 172 00:07:58,220 --> 00:08:00,700 you have to ask yourself, why would we trust these 173 00:08:00,700 --> 00:08:04,140 guys to share pictures with us ever? Until 174 00:08:04,140 --> 00:08:06,840 next time, this is UFO Warning over and out.