Woman Surprised When Large Chunk of NASA Equipment Crashes Down From Sky

"On an unassuming morning in rural West Texas, a woman named Ann Walter was puzzled whena huge hunk of metal descendedfrom the sky and crash landed in her neighbor's wheat field. There were NASA logos on the parachutes that carried the truck-sized object, which itself bore NASA markings. "It's crazy, because when you're standing on the ground and see something in the air, you don't realize how big it is," Walter told the Associated Press. "It was probably a 30-foot parachute. It was huge.""

"Unsure of what to do, she called her local sheriff, who told her that NASA had, in fact, misplaced some scientific research equipment. She'd later get a phone call from NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility and learn the equipment took off from alaunch facility in New Mexico that'sresponsible for launching, tracking, controlling, and recovering unmanned high-altitude research balloons. Typically, these balloons travel 20 miles into the Earth's atmosphere to conduct scientific experiments. The rep also told Walter that the equipmentuses telescopes to gather information about stars, galaxies and black holes. Complicating matters is that the Scientific Balloon Facility is one of the parts of the government affected by the current shutdown. That means it won't be updating itssite, and it's unclear whether the shutdown impacted the balloon's detour and subsequent short term disappearance. NASA did, however, send a recovery team out to collect the off-track unit."

Ann Walter observed a huge parachute and a truck-sized NASA-marked object crash into a neighbor's wheat field in rural West Texas. The local sheriff confirmed that NASA had misplaced scientific research equipment. NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility confirmed the payload launched from a New Mexico facility that launches, tracks, controls, and recovers unmanned high-altitude research balloons. These balloons typically travel about 20 miles into the atmosphere to conduct experiments. The payload uses telescopes to gather information about stars, galaxies, and black holes. The balloon facility is affected by a government shutdown and its site is not being updated. NASA sent a recovery team to collect the off-track unit.

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