A NASA high-altitude research balloon payload descended and landed in a wheat field near Edmonson in Hale County, West Texas, after a launch from Fort Sumner, New Mexico. A local resident, Ann Walter, observed the large parachute and notified the sheriff's office while her family captured photos and videos. The recovered payload was a boxy, SUV-sized scientific instrument carrying telescopes to study stars, galaxies and black holes. Personnel from the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility retrieved the equipment with a truck and trailer. NASA officials did not return messages amid the ongoing government shutdown.
""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,""
""It was probably a 30-foot parachute. It was huge.""
""The researchers came out with a truck and trailer they used to pick it up,""
""It's kind of surreal that it happened to us and that I was part of it,""
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