A Texas family got an out-of-this-world surprise earlier this month when a piece of NASA research equipment crashed on their property.
Anne and Hayden Walter told The Associated Press they were stunned when a massive object with a huge canopy swept onto their ranch in Edmonson, a small community in West Texas.
“It’s crazy, because when you’re standing on the ground and you see something in the air, you don’t realize how big it is,” Anne told the AP. “It was probably a 30-foot canopy. It was huge.”
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In this photo provided by Ann Walter, Ann Walter and her husband, Hayden, stand in front of a piece of NASA research equipment attached to a parachute that fell from the sky near their home in Edmonson, Texas, Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025. (Ann Walter via AP) -
In this photo provided by Ann Walter, stickers are visible on a piece of NASA research equipment that Ann Walter says fell from the sky near her home in Edmonson, Texas, Thursday, October 2, 2025. (Ann Walter via AP)
The couple called the local police department after the large box-like object fell nearby. Deputies soon learned that NASA was searching for a missing piece of equipment, and that the Walters family had found it.
According to NASA, the probe was part of a high-altitude research mission launched from the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, about 140 miles west of where it landed. The facility routinely sends unmanned science balloons more than 20 miles into the atmosphere to study stars, galaxies and black holes.
“The searchers came out with a truck and a trailer that they used to pick her up,” Anne said. “It’s surreal that this happened to us and that I was a part of it. It was a very cool experience.”