US family sues NASA for $80k in damages after space debris hits home

$70k for the law firm and $10k to fix the damages.

It feels like the smallest amount you can sue a government agency for and come away with anything, really. Very reasonable for having something smash through your house that could have killed you/your family.

It feels like a reasonable amount, which somehow struck me as funny/unexpected in our time.

If I remember this correctly, NASA is allowed to settle only very tiny damage claims on their own. Above a few thousand dollars they are required to defer to the Attorney General, whose office settles the larger claims against federal agencies.

They're attempting to set a legal precedent, per the piece.

> Worthy noted the case seeks to set precedent for space debris claims in the private and public sector.

A different story [0] where an oil tanker rescued a NASA cargo ship at sea. After the rescue, years long legal battle where the company tried to collect $5 million. As I recall, NASA lacked the authority to cut that size of check and the overseeing body fought to deny payment.

  Skip faced a difficult decision. A fully loaded, 688-foot oil tanker is hardly anyone's first choice of a rescue vessel. It is as maneuverable as a school bus on ice. And the Cherry Valley was carrying ten million gallons of heavy fuel oil. A rescue attempt would put them in dangerously shallow water. One wrong move, and they would have an ecological disaster on the order of the Exxon Valdez.
  … At the center of it all, an impossible question: How do you put a price tag on doing the right thing?

[0] https://www.npr.org/2024/01/26/1197956698/planet-money-draft...

NASA already retrieved it, and since it’s still property of the government, they can freely claim it.

Really they should have offered to pay for repairs at that time.

Most space junk either stays in space or burns up on re-entry