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Yeesh. This guy is not helping the future of his hobby, which I'm guessing is pretty precarious right now: “I tried contacting our military and the FBI—and jus

Yeesh. This guy is not helping the future of his hobby, which I'm guessing is pretty precarious right now: “I tried contacting our military and the FBI—and just got the runaround—to try to enlighten them on what a lot of these things probably are. And they’re going to look not too intelligent to be shooting them down,” says Ron Meadows, the founder of Scientific Balloon Solutions (SBS), a Silicon Valley company that makes purpose-built pico balloons for hobbyists, educators and scientists. In other news: Biden wants ‘sharper rules’ on unknown aerial objects https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-government-guam-karine-jean-pierre-6457aaf3e7322dd24e2b7274c3ba4813 https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-gove...

zhte415 4y ago
Perhaps it's better to seek to inform and influence policy, rather than be passively dictated by it.
beebmam 4y ago
Weren't these balloons at the altitude level that civilian aircraft fly? How exactly is it legal to do what these guys claim to have been doing? This is bizarre stuff. This guy should be thankful he's not in prison yet, even though he should be.
- trallnag 4y ago
  Wow what a nasty comment.
- justin66 4y ago
  I expect they were operating their balloons within the lawful parameters set by the FAA. I also expect those parameters might soon change now that spy balloons are a thing. That guy's hobby needs a talented spokesperson right now, and he definitely is not it.
- Rebelgecko 4y ago
  If you think that's bad, wait until you hear what the crooks at NOAA have been up to!
- wkat4242 4y ago
  60.000 feet is double the maximum ceiling of any current airliner. So no. most airliners do 35k or so max. Concorde went a lot higher but didn't reach 60k either (it also cruised much higher meaning it had basically the whole airspace to itself) Of course the balloons must transition but it goes quite fast.
  - aaronharnly 4y ago
    But the recently shot down objects were at 20,000 feet, 40,000 feet, and 40,000 feet, right? Part of the justification for shooting them down was their proximity to commercial aviation… Randomly found reference: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/13/1156498101/ufos-unidentified-objects-what-we-know-4-shootdowns https://www.npr.org/2023/02/13/1156498101/ufos-unidentified-...
  - onepointsixC 4y ago
    The 3 Balloons which were shot down after the known Chinese one were all flying between 20,000 - 40,000 ft. In truth it's kind of insane to me that drones seem to have greater FAA regulation than these balloons, some of which were close to active airports.
- ancientworldnow 4y ago
  Take it up with the FAA who explicitly allow it and believe to be safe.
  - Taniwha 4y ago
    yes, and normal weather balloons are launched daily by the 1000s, most also carry telemetry these days
- nullc 4y ago
  > This guy should be thankful he's not in prison yet, even though he should be. That's awfully nasty and blood thirsty. Thousands of weather balloons are launched very day, they are usually even more massive. These balloons are within the parameters that are explicitly permitted and are believed to be safe by the FAA. Not everything unfamiliar to you personally is a threat. Not everyone who does something which you haven't personally deemed safe deserves to be locked in a cage.
daveslash 4y ago
Yeah, I agree. The "they're going to look not too intelligent to be shooting them down" feels like a low-blow to me. Shooting them down seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to me at this time. Seems like we weren't even really looking for balloons until recently. Now that we've noticed the Chinese Spy balloon, we're reviewing radar logs with refined analysis and are finding some in the past. So we don't really know the characterization of this potential threat. Our ability to positively ID things in this realm is still developing. Until it's a matured discipline, seems reasonable to act with an abundance of caution. Even if the military could positively ID a pico balloon as such, who's to say pico balloons couldn't be used for nefarious purposes? Purposes still warranting being shot down? I could see the hobby moving to align with drones -- requiring FAA registration and a transponder. That seems like a solution that would allow well-intentioned pico balloons to continue operating and allow military to more easily discern: friend or foe?
- BenjiWiebe 4y ago
  These balloons do have a transponder already and are tracked on public websites. You would think a government organization patrolling the skies might be aware that a balloon sized object might be a balloon, and do some research before shooting it.
  - daveslash 4y ago
    I was not aware of that. I'm admittedly ignorant on the topic. Thank you for clarifying.

zhte415 4y ago

Perhaps it's better to seek to inform and influence policy, rather than be passively dictated by it.

beebmam 4y ago

Weren't these balloons at the altitude level that civilian aircraft fly? How exactly is it legal to do what these guys claim to have been doing? This is bizarre stuff. This guy should be thankful he's not in prison yet, even though he should be.

trallnag 4y ago
Wow what a nasty comment.
justin66 4y ago
I expect they were operating their balloons within the lawful parameters set by the FAA. I also expect those parameters might soon change now that spy balloons are a thing. That guy's hobby needs a talented spokesperson right now, and he definitely is not it.
Rebelgecko 4y ago
If you think that's bad, wait until you hear what the crooks at NOAA have been up to!
wkat4242 4y ago
60.000 feet is double the maximum ceiling of any current airliner. So no. most airliners do 35k or so max. Concorde went a lot higher but didn't reach 60k either (it also cruised much higher meaning it had basically the whole airspace to itself) Of course the balloons must transition but it goes quite fast.
- aaronharnly 4y ago
  But the recently shot down objects were at 20,000 feet, 40,000 feet, and 40,000 feet, right? Part of the justification for shooting them down was their proximity to commercial aviation… Randomly found reference: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/13/1156498101/ufos-unidentified-objects-what-we-know-4-shootdowns https://www.npr.org/2023/02/13/1156498101/ufos-unidentified-...
- onepointsixC 4y ago
  The 3 Balloons which were shot down after the known Chinese one were all flying between 20,000 - 40,000 ft. In truth it's kind of insane to me that drones seem to have greater FAA regulation than these balloons, some of which were close to active airports.
ancientworldnow 4y ago
Take it up with the FAA who explicitly allow it and believe to be safe.
- Taniwha 4y ago
  yes, and normal weather balloons are launched daily by the 1000s, most also carry telemetry these days
nullc 4y ago
> This guy should be thankful he's not in prison yet, even though he should be. That's awfully nasty and blood thirsty. Thousands of weather balloons are launched very day, they are usually even more massive. These balloons are within the parameters that are explicitly permitted and are believed to be safe by the FAA. Not everything unfamiliar to you personally is a threat. Not everyone who does something which you haven't personally deemed safe deserves to be locked in a cage.

daveslash 4y ago

Yeah, I agree. The "they're going to look not too intelligent to be shooting them down" feels like a low-blow to me. Shooting them down seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to me at this time. Seems like we weren't even really looking for balloons until recently. Now that we've noticed the Chinese Spy balloon, we're reviewing radar logs with refined analysis and are finding some in the past. So we don't really know the characterization of this potential threat. Our ability to positively ID things in this realm is still developing. Until it's a matured discipline, seems reasonable to act with an abundance of caution. Even if the military could positively ID a pico balloon as such, who's to say pico balloons couldn't be used for nefarious purposes? Purposes still warranting being shot down? I could see the hobby moving to align with drones -- requiring FAA registration and a transponder. That seems like a solution that would allow well-intentioned pico balloons to continue operating and allow military to more easily discern: friend or foe?

BenjiWiebe 4y ago
These balloons do have a transponder already and are tracked on public websites. You would think a government organization patrolling the skies might be aware that a balloon sized object might be a balloon, and do some research before shooting it.
- daveslash 4y ago
  I was not aware of that. I'm admittedly ignorant on the topic. Thank you for clarifying.