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A Chinese rocket deorbited over Minnesota and left this in a farmer's cornfield

All the evidence points to the debris being part of a Chinese Zhuque-2E rocket.

A Chinese rocket deorbited over Minnesota and left this in a farmer's cornfield

On September 15, a Chinese rocket launched from the Gobi Desert carrying 10 satellites. Following its mission, the rocket reignited its engine and descended towards Earth, with debris falling across the American Midwest. Social media captured images of fiery debris streaking across the sky, moving north from Kansas towards Minnesota and visible from Wisconsin's western horizon.

Experts connected the debris to the Zhuque-2E rocket, a medium-lift vehicle manufactured by LandSpace, a Chinese company. Launched from Dongfeng, a commercial launch site adjacent to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, the rocket departed the Gobi Desert less than two hours post-deployment.

Written by urgent.news from Ars Technica's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.

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