--- title: "11-Foot Chunk of Chinese Rocket Crashes Down in Minnesota Cornfield" description: "A metallic object crashed down into a cornfield in Minnesota. It was almost certainly a Chinese rocket that fell back to Earth." date: "2026-10-21" modified: "2026-10-21" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc.md" url: "https://futurism.com/space/chinese-rocket-chunk-minnesota-corn-field" categories: - "Off-World" - "Space" --- # 11-Foot Chunk of Chinese Rocket Crashes Down in Minnesota Cornfield ![A photo from police shows a large piece of space debris that crashed down in a Minnesota cornfield.]() *Stevens County Minnesota Sheriff's Office* Last week, the Sheriff's Office in Stevens County, Minnesota made a startling Facebook post. "On October 14, 2026, at approximately 3:30pm, the Stevens County Sheriff’s Office received a phone call of foreign debris that was found in a cornfield in Scott Township," it [wrote](). "Upon responding, deputies confirmed that a large, metallic object, approximately 11-feet in diameter, presumably a space object, was present in the cornfield. 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 post, which included a photo of a banged-up metal object surrounded by yellowed stalks of corn, quickly started picking up traction on social media due to the implication that the object had come from space. Now, [*Ars Technica* has the receipts](): the object was almost certainly chunk of a Chinese Zhuque-2E rocket that launched from the Gobi Desert, deployed 10 satellites, and then headed back Earthward, where it was spotted burning up in the skies over [Kansas]() and [Minnesota](). As launches get more common and rockets get larger and sturdier — the model built by LandSpace, which deposited the debris in the cornfield, is a workhorse spacecraft meant to ferry cargo to Earth's orbit — the chances of their detritus [surviving the journey back to the ground]() increases. These chunks of spacefaring equipment can sometimes crash down in populated areas. In 2024, a NASA component from the International Space Station withstood reentry and [crashed through a home]() in Florida where a family was sleeping. Space wreckage has previously been discovered previously on farms in [Canada]() and [Australia](). Nobody has yet been injured by a piece of falling space debris, but as commercial ambitions for Earth's orbit increase — the Chinese rocket had been launched to deploy satellites for a connectivity constellation meant to rival SpaceX's Starlink — it's probably only a matter of time. **More on space debris:** *[Space Junk Now Almost Constantly Crashing Down to Earth]()* ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()