Chinese Rocket Debris Lands in Minnesota Cornfield After Botched Deorbit

An 11-foot metallic object from a Chinese Zhuque-2E rocket upper stage was discovered in a rural Minnesota cornfield during the fall harvest, the apparent result of a deorbit burn that sent debris raining over the American Midwest on September 15. The circular object precisely matches the 3.35-meter diameter of the rocket stage, linking it to a launch that occurred less than two hours earlier.

The Zhuque-2E, a medium-lift vehicle built by Chinese company LandSpace, lifted off from Dongfeng, a commercial launch zone co-located with the military-run Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China. The rocket flight lasted between 75 and 80 minutes and came down without completing a full orbit of the Earth. Social media posts at the time showed streaks of fiery debris falling from the sky, heading north over Kansas toward Minnesota, with the overnight spectacle also visible on the western horizon from Wisconsin.

A farmer discovered the object while combining his cornfield in Scott Township, a community in west central Minnesota. The Stevens County Sheriff's Office said it received a phone call reporting the discovery on Wednesday. "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 wrote on Facebook. "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."

Law enforcement officials said the debris posed no danger to the public, though that might not have been true had the object reentered over a more populated area. The rocket deployed 10 satellites for the Qianfan, or Thousand Sails, communications network, a Chinese counterpart to SpaceX's Starlink constellation. China has launched 258 Qianfan satellites across a series of missions since 2024, working toward an initial constellation of 1,296 satellites and longer-term ambitions of more than 15,000.

The methane-fueled rocket released the 10 Qianfan satellites into a circular polar orbit at an altitude of roughly 560 miles around a half-hour after liftoff. The rocket flew south from China, over Antarctica, then north over the Americas. After deploying its payloads, the upper stage performed a burn to slow its velocity and drop out of orbit. The usual practice for rocket disposals is to steer them toward reentry over the ocean, suggesting the September 15 incident was perhaps the result of a botched deorbit burn.

What makes the Minnesota debris unusual is its size, larger than most objects that survive reentry, and the fact that it likely originated from a rocket that fell from space the same day it launched. Under international law, the country that launched an object into space is liable for any damage it causes on the ground. No one has ever been seriously injured by falling space junk, though there are a few examples of property damage. Chinese rockets have been a problem in this area before, with unguided reentries and in-orbit breakups. The upper stage from the Zhuque-2E's previous flight in June broke apart after completing its mission, leaving dozens of pieces of debris in a heavily trafficked part of low-Earth orbit.

LandSpace has not publicly acknowledged the debris fall over Minnesota. The Stevens County Sheriff's Office continues working with state and federal agencies to identify the owner and plan removal of the object from the field.