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Unidentified balloon belongs to amateur balloonist: US official
- mikequinlan 3y agoIf they have identified it, doesn't that mean it is no longer "unidentified"?
- krapp 3y agoYes. The title probably should have used "formerly unidentified." Although most people would be capable of inferring that from the context clues.
- dylan604 3y ago> Although most people oof, you have really high expectations of most people. most people on this forum or most people in general? there's a wide gap there
- Wingman4l7 3y agoVery click-bait of them to use a still video thumbnail of the massive Chinese surveillance balloon of last year.
- pelagicAustral 3y agoCompletely memoryholed that incident. Was it Chinese then, I'm guessing they confirmed that after all.
- bombcar 3y agoIt was Chinese and (eventually) admitted such - the dispute was over what exactly it was doing.
- 1letterunixname 3y agoMainstream media both needs outrage for engagement and to stoke "yellow menace" flames to characterize 2 billion people as a "threat" and manufacture consent to appease the powers that be to make the case for expanded military-industrial complex spending instead of healthcare.
- wakawaka28 3y agoWell there is some positioning going on for a possible war. The Chinese balloon was part of it. Stop trying to act like China is innocent and minding their business. They are not. They have a hundred year plan for global supremacy and the US has been falling for it, unwittingly. How many factories were sent overseas so we could have a "service economy" of OnlyFans and Uber? For all this talk of healthcare, we don't even make most of our own medicine. Much of it comes from China and friendly countries in the vicinity of China. I'm frankly amazed that the geniuses in Washington allowed this to happen. Someone must have warned them it was a bad idea.
- cqqxo4zV46cp 3y agoOnlyFans? Christ. Tell us how you really feel. Wait, don’t.
- wakawaka28 3y agoI feel like my country has been sold out and continues to be dismantled by corrupt politicians. Most of the West is in the same situation. Unless something changes, we're screwed.
- kobalsky 3y agothat balloon wasn’t a toy either. the payload was the size of a bus
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- markx2 3y agoThe balloon is therefore identified.
- pangolinja 3y ago[flagged]
- neilv 3y agoHow does one operate a balloon like that in US airspace, both legally, and otherwise without being a threat to other aircraft?
- rolph 3y agoAmateur radio high-altitude ballooning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_balloon#Amateur_high-altitude_ballooning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_balloon#Amateur_... https://arhab.org/ https://arhab.org/
- reactordev 3y agoYou contact the FAA… Anytime you do weather balloons, rockets, anything that goes above 500ft AGL, you need to notify FAA ahead of time. Get permits. Approval. And on launch day, have them on the phone. If it will show up on radar, you better believe they will scramble the fighters.
- bozhark 3y agoOh sweet local rocketry club Jesus. It’s only 500ft?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- cj 3y agoI could be wrong, but 500ft is the minimum recommended altitude for helicopters. That might have something to do with it.
- reactordev 3y agodepending on where you are. Yes. That's the moment you enter controlled airspace. Obviously it depends on where you are. In NYC, it's 500ft. In NM, it's FL10 or 10,000 ft. Either way, you should get the FAA involved so they don't waste tax payer dollars on F-16s. If you're flying an amateur rocket above minimums, it must adhere to Part 101 or be waived by FAA.
- ShakataGaNai 3y agoAmateur balloonists have been running these sorts of things for a really really long time without issue. Unfortunately due to China (Spying? Meteorology? we'll never know), now every time there is a balloon spotted there will be an issue. While I'm not a fan of regulation, we should have some sort of optional transponder/beacon system that can be voluntarily registered. ADSB-like, which I know balloons can do...but true ADSB is expensive. That way hobbits can continue doing their thing, the cost per balloon goes up by some minor amount, and we don't scramble jets and make national news constantly.
- jcrawfordor 3y agoThe large balloon was definitely from China, China never denied that. The dispute was over its intention, which China maintains was meteorological research. For example, here is a BBC article that takes a skeptical tone but correctly summarizes the statements made by the Chinese government. Under a more charitable interpretation, one could assume that the Chinese government remained silent for some time because they had to determine which research agency had launched it. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-64633990 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-64633990
- ShakataGaNai 3y agoYou're right, incorrect implication on my part. Fixed.
- squarefoot 3y ago> The dispute was over its intention, which China maintains was meteorological research. I seem to recall the US military were able to recover it after shooting it down. If that's the case, analysis of the remains should dispel any doubt about its purpose: sensors used in meteorological research are quite different from those used say for monitoring radio waves or taking photos of terrain.
- jcrawfordor 3y agoYes, and there has been pretty extensive reporting that based on analysis of the wreckage the balloon was determined to be an ELINT (electronic intelligence) collection platform with a real-time C2 connection using a commercial US ISP (I assume a cellular carrier). I think that's pretty much what anyone with some general knowledge of modern military intelligence would have guessed, it's just the obvious thing to use such a balloon for. However, to my knowledge, this is all based on "sources within the intelligence community" and has not been formally acknowledged by any government official. So take it with a grain of salt, even on top of what you might usually apply to determinations by US intelligence.
- SV_BubbleTime 3y agoWell, at least they didn’t fire a $400,000 rocket from $65,000,000 fighter jet that costs $50,000 minimum to start and get in the air, only to miss… this time.
- slipperybeluga 3y ago[dead]
- cjbenedikt 3y ago"Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said that the balloon not only did not transmit data back to China -- it never collected any." https://abcnews-go-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/abcnews.go.com/amp/US/chinese-spy-balloon-american-made-parts-transmit-data/story?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&id=100476856&usqp=mq331AQIUAKwASCAAgM%3D#amp_ct=1708812660107&_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17088126250253&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fabcnews.go.com%2FUS%2Fchinese-spy-balloon-american-made-parts-transmit-data%2Fstory%3Fid%3D100476856 https://abcnews-go-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/abcnews.go.com...
- wakawaka28 3y agoYou need to stay on top of things. It was later reported that it was in fact transmitting. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/china-spy-balloon-collected-intelligence-us-military-bases-rcna77155 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/china-spy... As I recall, the spying case was suspected from the start. The Navy cleared out a port just before the balloon passed overhead, just to be safe. I can only assume that's why the ships were evacuated, anyway. The media is not going to tell you the truth, especially not about stuff like this. They wouldn't have told us even if they knew it carried a bomb, probably. As a matter of fact, you should take anything the government or media says with a healthy dose of salt. Seek out alternative sources. It might save your life. For example, people in Ukraine were told that Russia was not invading up to the day it started. Then they closed their borders and conscripted just about all the men.
- LorenPechtel 3y agoI don't think the world was at all sure Russia was actually going to invade rather than intimidation tactics.
- wakawaka28 3y agoThe world wasn't sure but I think the intelligence agencies were fairly sure. They could see it all from space. I heard about blood banks being moved like a week before it started, at least. They don't do that for an "exercise". I think the reason Ukraine didn't tell its citizens sooner is that they didn't want traffic problems, and didn't want young men to run. When you say "the world wasn't sure" you really mean "the media said nobody was sure" and that is a distinction you need to learn. Exactly what I said in my earlier post...