""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,""
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.
Read at Fortune
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