Deputy Todd Friesenhahn said Friday (Jan 24, 1997) night that officials from Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio confiscated the object, which is about two feet in diameter, scorched and pitted on one side and with what appeared to be the remains of a valve.
Rancher Ed Longcope told authorities Friday he was feeding his cattle when he noticed the sphere halfway imbedded in the middle of his field in Kingsbury, an incident report said.
Deputies took the object to the National Weather Service office in New Braunfels, but officials there were unable to identify it and said to contact NASA.
Some have speculated that the object may be connected to reports of a bright streak of light early Wednesday that officials believe was a Delta II rocket body re-entering the atmosphere and burning up, Knox said.
[NOTE: Headquarters of the Mutual UFO Network, MUFON, is located in Seguin, Texas. The MUFON Journal of March, 1997, featured a long article on this object, which turned out to be a spherical tank from the Delta II rocket. Larger pieces of the rocket were also recovered in nearby locations, although this did not receive widespread news coverage. It is highly unusual for such large pieces of space debris to hit the ground. Had these objects struck buildings, they would have done majore damage. They could also have killed innocent people. None of this was discussed in the press.]
Original file name: CNI - Texas Sphere
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