Overview
- The PICTURE-D payload was launched on Oct. 1 from the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, for an astrophysics data run.
- The high-altitude balloon flight reached roughly 36 kilometers before the instrument descended earlier than planned.
- The payload is about four meters long, roughly one meter wide, and weighs around 680 kilograms, according to contemporary reports.
- It came down under a parachute on private farmland in Hale County, Texas, where a local family notified county authorities and relayed the location to NASA personnel.
- NASA agents recovered the equipment the same day, and no injuries were reported, with an investigation into the anomaly developing.