A farmer combining a cornfield in Scott Township, Minnesota, found space debris about 11 feet across in the middle of the fall harvest. The Stevens County Sheriff’s Office said deputies later tied the metallic object to a Chinese Zhuque-2E rocket launch.
The sheriff’s office said deputies found a large, metallic object, approximately 11-feet in diameter, in the field after a Wednesday phone call reporting the discovery. In a Facebook statement, the office said: "Upon responding, deputies confirmed that a large, metallic object, approximately 11-feet in diameter, presumably a space object, was present in the cornfield".
Scott Township discovery
The object turned up in west-central Minnesota, where the farmer was combining his field for the fall harvest. The sheriff’s office said it was working with several state and federal agencies to identify and notify the owner of the debris and to plan for removal from the field.
That size points to an upper stage, not a small fragment. The Zhuque-2E upper stage has a diameter of 11 feet, or 3.35 meters, matching the object found in the field.
Zhuque-2E flight path
The rocket launched from Dongfeng on September 15 and flew for 75 to 80 minutes. It deployed 10 Qianfan satellites into a circular polar orbit at roughly 560 miles, or 900 kilometers, about a half-hour after liftoff, then the upper stage performed a burn to slow down and drop out of orbit.
Its path ran south from China, over Antarctica, then north over the Americas. Social media posts showed streaks of fiery debris falling north over Kansas toward Minnesota, and the spectacle was visible from the western horizon in Wisconsin.
Removal from the field
Law enforcement said the debris posed no danger to the public, even though the object was large enough to match the upper stage of a recently launched rocket. The sheriff’s office said in a second statement: "The Sheriff’s Office is working closely with several state and federal agencies to identify and notify the owner of the debris and to plan for removal from the field."
The question now is whether the object will be formally identified as the Zhuque-2E upper stage and which agency will handle getting it out of the cornfield.
