Metal debris that fell in a field in Scott Township, Minnesota, roughly 158 miles northwest of Minneapolis, came from a Chinese commercial rocket, according to reports.
The Stevens County Sheriff’s Office responded to the cornfield Wednesday afternoon and found the piece of metal debris, about 11 feet in diameter and presumed to be a “space object.” The sheriff’s office said there was no danger presented by the object, and did not make any mention of injuries.
The diameter is a match to the upper stage of the Zhuque-2E rockets used by Chinese company LandSpace for commercial launches, including one last month that saw 10 communications satellites taken into orbit, according to technology news site ArsTechnica.
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The rocket launched from a facility in northern China on Sept. 15, and flew southwards from China to Antarctica before flying over the Americas. Rockets are usually steered towards oceans where they can fall safely, and the presence of the debris in the Minnesota field could suggest a “botched deorbit burn,” according to Ars Technica.
The same type of Chinese rocket was also linked to two pieces of space debris that fell in Indonesia Tuesday.
The debris struck a palm oil plantation, though no one was injured, and Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency said the two pieces appeared to originate from a Zhuque-2E rocket, according to French wire agency Agence France-Presse.
“It was just there. At first, I thought it might have been aircraft debris. We usually carry out our activities in the area where the object fell. Fortunately, all the workers had already gone home, so no one was left in the plantation,” worker Wardi Tamroni told AFP.
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