Overview

• Resident Ann Walter in Edmonson, Texas, watched the SUV-sized box descend under a large parachute and photographed its landing in a neighbor’s wheat field.
• Hale County Sheriff David Cochran said NASA officials contacted his office seeking the missing equipment.
• The Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility confirmed the hardware came from a high-altitude research balloon launched about a day earlier from Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
• Walter said researchers arrived with a truck and trailer and removed the NASA-marked payload from the field.
• Reporters noted NASA did not return messages, with coverage citing the government shutdown’s impact on agency communications, and separate reports referenced treaty principles assigning liability to the launcher.