{"id":290791,"date":"2025-10-10T02:17:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T02:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/290791\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T02:17:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T02:17:10","slug":"its-kind-of-surreal-that-it-happened-to-us-rural-west-texas-woman-witnesses-nasa-space-junk-as-it-lands-in-her-neighbors-yard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/290791\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It’s kind of surreal that it happened to us’: Rural West Texas woman witnesses NASA space junk as it lands in her neighbor’s yard"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Ann Walter looked outside her rural West Texas home, she didn\u2019t know what to make of the bulky object slowly drifting across the sky.<\/p>\n

She was even more surprised to see what actually landed in her neighbor\u2019s wheat field: a boxy piece of scientific equipment about the size of a sport-utility vehicle, attached to a massive parachute, adorned with NASA stickers. She called the local sheriff\u2019s office and learned that NASA, indeed, was looking for a piece of equipment that had gone lost.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s crazy, because when you\u2019re standing on the ground and see something in the air, you don\u2019t realize how big it is,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was probably a 30-foot parachute. It was huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walter said she soon got a call from NASA\u2019s\u00a0Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility<\/a>, which launches large unmanned, high altitude research balloons more than 20 miles into the atmosphere to conduct scientific experiments.<\/p>\n

Officials at NASA, which is impacted by the\u00a0ongoing government shutdown<\/a>, did not return messages Thursday. A message left with the balloon facility also was not immediately returned.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0launch schedule<\/a>\u00a0on the balloon facility\u2019s website shows a series of launches from Fort Sumner, New Mexico, about 140 miles (225 kilometers) west of where the equipment landed.<\/p>\n

Hale County Sheriff David Cochran confirmed that NASA officials called his office last week in search of the equipment.<\/p>\n

Walter said she ultimately spoke with someone at the balloon facility who told her it had been launched a day earlier from Fort Sumner, and uses telescopes to gather information about stars, galaxies and black holes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe researchers came out with a truck and trailer they used to pick it up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But not before Walter and her family, who live in Edmonson, Texas, were able to capture some photos and videos.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of surreal that it happened to us and that I was part of it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was a very cool experience.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Fortune Global Forum<\/strong> returns Oct. 26\u201327, 2025 in Riyadh. CEOs and global leaders will gather for a dynamic, invitation-only event shaping the future of business. Apply for an invitation.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Ann Walter looked outside her rural West Texas home, she didn\u2019t know what to make of the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":290792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[916,159,783,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-290791","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-nasa","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-space","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115347472088071412","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}