Texas woman surprised as lost hunk of NASA equipment lands on her farm: ‘It’s kind of surreal’

She seems like a good sport.  Did she change outfits or do girl farmers usually dress cute?

When Ann Walter looked outside her rural West Texas home, she didn’t know what to make of the bulky object slowly drifting across the sky.

She was even more surprised to see what actually landed in her neighbor’s 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.

That thing is too big and shiny to have been in space.  A NASA facility, 140 miles away in Fort Sumner, New Mexico sent that up to about 100,000 feet tethered to a research balloon.

It looks expensive.  There are a bunch of stickers on the side, but no bumper sticker telling the finder who to call.

Walter said she soon got a call from NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility, which launches large unmanned, high altitude research balloons more than 20 miles into the atmosphere to conduct scientific experiments.

NASA can surely track the sensor platform during it’s descent, but how do they call the landowners?  It would be easy to find out who owns the land, but cellphone numbers aren’t generally listed.  Government agencies have or could find the cellphone number, but it seems like providing “If found…” instructions would be convenient for everyone.

Are salvage rights still a thing?  Were they ever?  While Mrs. Walter was getting dolled up for the photo, Mr. Walter was probably googling to find out if they had to give it back.  I’d think the rule would be something like, “If you can get it in the barn, you can keep it.”

It’s big enough that had it hit a cow, house or car, it would have done real damage.  That’s scary.  They should do something for the Walters to express their gratitude.  Some cash would be nice, but give them a memento.  Cut out that sticker panel, mount it in a frame, with a nice ‘Thank You’ note.

On those stickers, what’s to be made of this one?

It looks like a Russian space bear carrying a German V-2 rocket.  America captured the Nazi aerospace engineer, Werner Von Braun, and used him to build NASA.  Since Von Braun designed the V-2 rocket, the image clearly suggests that Russian assets had coerced him into becoming a sleeper agent.

A launch schedule on the balloon facility’s website shows a series of launches from Fort Sumner, New Mexico, about 140 miles (225 kilometers) west of where the equipment landed.

Since these sensor platforms are routinely launched, where do the rest of them land?  Here is a night satellite image of the area.

Texas is really big, about the same size as France.  Compared to France, it’s pretty empty.  Especially the part near New Mexico.  Clovis, Texas is the bright spot between the launch site at Fort Sumner, and the landing site in Edmonson. 

Clovis has 40,000 people, so even the bright spot doesn’t have many people.  East is the worst direction for the balloon to drift, but that doesn’t endanger many people.  Any other direction is practically empty.