Samsung SpaceSelfie Galaxy-bearing balloon photobombs Michigan home the hard way

On Saturday, a phone-toting high-altitude balloon launched by Samsung to promote its Galaxy S10 5G phone crashed into the front yard of the home of Nancy and Dan Welke in Gratiot County, Michigan. On its Facebook page, the Gratiot County Herald reported that the couple heard a crash around 0845 Saturday morning and discovered …

[Robert Helpmann??]

Close to Fame

...somewhat-celeb Cara Delevingne...

Come now, she was in several movies I have heard of, if not actually watched. For instance, she was reasonably adequate in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Close to Fame

If only they'd been given a better script, and not been expected to pretend to be teens.

[Lazlo Woodbine]

Re: Close to Fame

She was also pretty good in Paper Towns

[Dynamite]

Was it running Android Pie? If yes then it was Pie in the sky....

[Chris G]

Finders Keepers

All I can say is if a Galaxy S10 lands on my property they're not getting it back!

A decent spare phone is always handy.

[Mark 85]

Re: Finders Keepers

Looking at the debris in the yard, that was one very large phone that don't think would fit one's pocket.

[Brian Miller]

"Crashed satellite" indeed

Other sources claimed that it was a crashed satellite. I wondered, how could something fall out of orbit and be in such good condition? So El Reg gets the story right. Samsung should have come to our beloved vultures to do it right, instead of this screwup.

[Tim99]

Compensation

I wondered if Samsung ought to compensate the residents by giving them an S10 each, but then I realized that they had suffered enough from the power outage...

[sbt]

High altitude balloon?

So maybe the incident in Roswell was just a early viral marketing stunt.

[Satan666]

Was just there, Alma last weekend (graduated from High School there). If had been just couple miles north could have hit the windmill farm. Would have bee fun to see it spinning around on one.

[My other car WAS an IAV Stryker]

Satan is from Michigan?!? (Well, the state does have a village named "Hell".)

That's it; I'm moving back to Minnesota.

(Please excuse the joke based on your Reg nickname. I'm sure you're a wonderful person.)

[Unicornpiss]

In space, no one can hear you Tweet..

I didn't catch whether it still worked when it landed..

[Erebus_77]

Re: In space, no one can hear you Tweet..

Its a Samsung, its debatable whether it worked before it was launched

Samsung should be prosecuted for dropping incendiaries!

[imanidiot]

Illegal materials and weight

Seems like Samsung is breaking the law here. I rather doubt they followed all FAA 101 regulations, thus they need to be 101 exempt. Payload weight can not exceed 12lbs total, divided into packages not exceeding 6 lbs each. Judging from all the steel and metal in there, this payload was definitely heavier. On top of that it's not allowed to be a hazard when landing (even if it was launched under the relevant regulations), and this payload was DEFINITELY a danger to anyone underneath it with all the "sticky outty pokey bits".

Specifically FAA:

§101.33 Operating limitations.

No person may operate an unmanned free balloon—

(e) In such a manner that impact of the balloon, or part thereof including its payload, with the surface creates a hazard to persons or property not associated with the operation.

[Sureo]

"Do what you can't"

Other clever Samsung corporate slogans:

"Illuminate the future"

and my favorite

"Do bigger things"