NASA has been operating for years of astronomy picture day, but lately some of the feeds appeared in the feed. A photo called Flying Saucer Crash Landscape in Utah Desert came on the Internet, and it looks like a traditional flying protector UFO. There is no aliens on crashing soccer, though. APOD writers are just rude.

In this picture, “Flying Soccer” is actually a sample return module from Genesis Mission. It was a soccer-shaped, and it flew by air before it crashed in Utah deserts (falling from some definitions is a kind of fly). So, the title is technically accurate but phrased in such a way that makes you doubtful.

Genesis began in 2001 to study solar wind. Many particles extracted by the Sun are removed from the Earth’s magnetic field, which is good for humans. It is not good if you want to study solar wind. Originally transferred from Earth orbit to a “Lissajous Classroom” around the L2 Lagrangian point. A portion of the mission was to capture the solar wind particles and return them to the Earth in the shape of a soccer-shaped container.

NASA did not intend to produce a container for affecting the Utah Desert in 2004, but it crashed in a fabulous fashion thanks to the failed parachute. The 600 lb (272 kg) module was gradually going to swim so low that a helicopter would throw it in the sky and take it off from the sky. NASA later determined that a design flaw in the recession sensor prevented the deployment of the parachute.

The agency sent a helicopter team after the container, and a member of the 388th Range Squadron of the U.S. Air Force took away the picture of “Flying Soccer” before removing it. The crew had to wait for disabling unwanted parachute pyrotechnic charges before coming to the technicians.

This flight protector story is also a happy ending. Many of the solar wind specimens escaped with good effect. So, NASA still got some useful data, and we all got to see a picture of this clean flight rescue accident in the desert. Genesis Mission helped scientists to work on the structure of the Sun, and distribution of elements varies in the Solar System.