Rocket debris hitting US homeland is ‘embarrassing’ for China, says astronomer

A scorched hunk of metal that turned up in a US farmer’s cornfield may have handed China an awkward moment and technically an “international incident”, according to a British astronomer who has tracked rocket launches for more than 30 years. The farmer found the bowl-shaped object, measuring about 3.35 metres (11 feet) across, while harvesting corn in west-central Minnesota on October 14. Online, some residents joked that aliens had landed, while Chinese internet users said it looked like a...