When did weather balloons become national news? Aren’t there always weather balloons floating around the world? Is it just that this one isn’t registered or something?
The article even states that the infamous “Chinese spy balloon” from last year turned out to have no ability to send information back to China and it wasn’t even from the Chinese government, but from a private company, institution, or individual.
So everything the public heard about it was sensationalism, fear mongering, and distraction. If China wanted aerial pictures, wouldn’t they just use their space program?
That is a common misconception and not true. You probably hear about some large state run companies but there are tons of small private companies, I work closely with someone who owns their own business in Shenzhen.
These balloons aren’t being used for the weather. The 2023 balloon was a 61M tall Superpressure Balloon with rudder, propeller, and solar power, a total payload of 910 kg. It could be steered and maneuvered, it left China in a straight line then navigated north to approach the USA from Canada. The manufacturer was a defence contractor. Chinese officials actually demanded the craft be returned, which makes absolutely no sense if it really were a civilian aircraft which caused a huge international incident.
Maybe I got the previous balloons mixed up. The article on this post states:
Though the Pentagon eventually concluded the balloon did not transmit information back to China, its presence put the U.S. military on high alert for other objects in U.S. airspace. Fighter jets shot down several unidentified objects over the U.S. and Canada over the following weeks.
The military couldn’t find any debris from those objects, and the search was called off due to dangerous weather conditions. Mr. Biden said the unidentified objects were not believed to be connected to China’s spy balloon program.
“The intelligence community’s current assessment is that these three objects were mostly balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions studying weather or conducting other scientific research,” the president said. .
When did weather balloons become national news? Aren’t there always weather balloons floating around the world? Is it just that this one isn’t registered or something?
The article even states that the infamous “Chinese spy balloon” from last year turned out to have no ability to send information back to China and it wasn’t even from the Chinese government, but from a private company, institution, or individual.
So everything the public heard about it was sensationalism, fear mongering, and distraction. If China wanted aerial pictures, wouldn’t they just use their space program?
There are no private Chinese companies.
That is a common misconception and not true. You probably hear about some large state run companies but there are tons of small private companies, I work closely with someone who owns their own business in Shenzhen.
These balloons aren’t being used for the weather. The 2023 balloon was a 61M tall Superpressure Balloon with rudder, propeller, and solar power, a total payload of 910 kg. It could be steered and maneuvered, it left China in a straight line then navigated north to approach the USA from Canada. The manufacturer was a defence contractor. Chinese officials actually demanded the craft be returned, which makes absolutely no sense if it really were a civilian aircraft which caused a huge international incident.
Turns out it belongs to an amateur hobbyist:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/us-monitoring-high-altitude-balloon-west-rcna140275
Maybe I got the previous balloons mixed up. The article on this post states:
Though the Pentagon eventually concluded the balloon did not transmit information back to China, its presence put the U.S. military on high alert for other objects in U.S. airspace. Fighter jets shot down several unidentified objects over the U.S. and Canada over the following weeks.
The military couldn’t find any debris from those objects, and the search was called off due to dangerous weather conditions. Mr. Biden said the unidentified objects were not believed to be connected to China’s spy balloon program.
“The intelligence community’s current assessment is that these three objects were mostly balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions studying weather or conducting other scientific research,” the president said. .
Good news, then.