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Given the Chinese have been complaining to the UN for the last year about American Low Earth Orbit satellites spying on them (Starshield, Space Development Agen
by georgeg23 4y ago
Given the Chinese have been complaining to the UN for the last year about American Low Earth Orbit satellites spying on them (Starshield, Space Development Agency, etc..) this balloon thing is pretty clever.
- georgeg23 4y agoAlso maybe gives China cover/justification to start shooting down these low satellites.
- meepmorp 4y agoNo. Shooting down satellites is a very different thing.
- postalrat 4y agoBecause they fly a bit higher?
- rfrey 4y agoYes. Sovereign airspace versus not.
- mensetmanusman 4y agoI wouldn’t put it past the Chinese to deploy islands of atmosphere and release air in low earth orbit, and then declare that it is now part of the Chinese atmosphere before they start shooting down satellites.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- blendergeek 4y agoAlso Kessler syndrome.
- macintux 4y agoChina hasn’t indicated it cares a great deal about international law. (One could make the same argument for the U.S., but that’s not the open question at the moment.)
- gateorade 4y agoInternational law’s got nothing to do with it. Basically Every spacefaring has made it their policy that an attack on one of their satellites would be treated as an act of war and everything would be on the table in terms of retaliation
- kccqzy 4y agoIf China didn't care about international law it would've said it sent the balloon on purpose. Instead it found a cover story of some civilian balloon gone awry. They cared enough about international law to lie.
- boc 4y agoThat’s an escalator that China can’t afford to ride. The US would deorbit everything China ever put into space if they started shooting at satellites. Those satellites are part of the strategic triad and would be a direct threat to the US nuclear umbrella. The AEGIS systems off the Chinese coast would take care of any attempts to add satellites back into space.
- georgeg23 4y agoLow-Earth orbit satellites are not currently part of triad (but may be part of a future nuclear defense shield / interceptor system). They are also much easier to shoot down. See Space Development Agency https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Development_Agency https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Development_Agency That's what China has been most upset about at United Nations.
- systemvoltage 4y agoThere are some rumors that the ICON was shot down by the Chinese (No facts are found supporting those rumors): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionospheric_Connection_Explorer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionospheric_Connection_Explore... That happened last month in November 2022. It mysteriously destroyed itself.
- michelb 4y agoCurious, are all satellites known? I’m sure there are hundreds of unknown, untracked, secret satellites floating around?
- JKCalhoun 4y agoI don't see an equivalency. Low Earth Orbit satellites are above the ionosphere, balloons below. I suspect if it is radio traffic that you are interested in listening in on then one of those is much more effective.
- georgeg23 4y agoLEO satellites are great for RF reconnaissance for frequencies between 100MHz and 100GHz which easily penetrate the ionosphere. They can even geolocate the source on the ground by measuring the observed Doppler shift (caused by the spy satellites own fast motion)