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Unsure of what to do, she called her local sheriff, who told her that NASA had, in fact, misplaced some scientific research equipment.<\/p>\n
She\u2019d later get a phone call from NASA\u2019s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility<\/a> and learn the equipment took off from a launch facility in New Mexico that\u2019s responsible for launching, tracking, controlling, and recovering unmanned high-altitude research balloons. Typically, these balloons travel 20 miles into the Earth\u2019s atmosphere to conduct scientific experiments. The rep also told Walter that the equipment uses telescopes to gather information about stars, galaxies and black holes.<\/p>\n Complicating matters is that the Scientific Balloon Facility is one of the parts of the government affected by the current shutdown. That means it won\u2019t be updating its site,<\/a> and it\u2019s unclear whether the shutdown impacted the balloon\u2019s detour and subsequent short term disappearance. NASA did, however, send a recovery team out to collect the off-track unit.<\/p>\n According to the launch schedule available on the site, there was a flight classified as \u201cdescending<\/a>\u201d right in Walter\u2019s area of the map.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s kind of surreal that it happened to us and that I was part of it,\u201d Walter told the AP. \u201cIt was a very cool experience.\u201d<\/p>\n