Ground damage from re-entry debris

January 22, 1997, Tulsa: Lottie Williams is brushed on the shoulder by a fragment of a Delta II second stage, whose tank comes down the same day near Georgetown, Texas. The overwhelming majority of objects re-entering the atmosphere burn up. Some dense components still reach the ground intact: titanium tanks, reaction wheels, battery support structures. The case stayed theoretical for decades, because inhabited land covers only a small fraction of the globe, and that rarity led people to believe no claim would ever succeed. The facts proved otherwise. The compensation regime is twofold, and it reads in a set order. The 1972 Convention makes the launching state strictly liable for damage caused on the surface, but it organizes a state-to-state claim through diplomatic channels, which does nothing for a private individual whose roof has just been pierced. That individual therefore turns to domestic law, against the operator or the agency. That is where the question becomes an insurance one: the operator's third-party liability cover responds where the diplomatic route would remain a dead letter. With more objects re-entering every year, a legal curiosity is turning into a measurable frequency.