US Shoots Down Chinese Suspected Spy Balloon

[Major Tom]

Seriously... Is China joking?

"The People's Republic of China is requesting the return of its surveillance aircraft after the balloon was shot down over the continental United States.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning fielded questions Tuesday about the incident, which dominated news cycles and commanded attention from U.S. politicians.

CHINA ADMITS SPY FLIGHT SPOTTED OVER LATIN AMERICA IS THEIRS, CLAIMS IT 'DEVIATED' OFF COURSE

Asked for additional information regarding the purpose of the balloon and reports of similar aircraft making routes through North American and South American airspace, Mao declined.

"The Chinese side has given information about the unmanned airship on several occasions. I don’t have anything to add at the moment," she stated."

 

https://www.foxnews.com/world/china-wants-downed-spy-aircraft-back-does-not-belong-to-us.amp

[Dave Hounddriver]

Never Fear!  Canada is here!  We are preparing a fleet of balloons to patrol the sky for Chinks in our defense!

 

[intrepid]

Not the first balloon shot down.

 

[Old55]

The History Guy is a great YouTube channel. 

[stevewool]

[stevewool]

[Mike J]

[GeoffH]

It has been suggested that at least one of the balloons might actually have been an amateur radio groups 'Pico Balloon'. I've never launched one but I attended a launch at Canberra University some years back during a Linux conference.  They use (generally) surplus weather balloons and attach light weight radio transponders and (generally) some types of sensors to measure wind speed, temperature, pressure etc.  They're tracked by amateur operators on various web sites and several are launched each year from Australia (and many more from other countries).

They have strict weight limits so as not to cause a hazard to air traffic.

 

[Dave Hounddriver]

4 hours ago, GeoffH said:

'Pico Balloon'.

That sounds like "peek o" and that means "pinko".  Shoot 'em down!   🎈

[GeoffH]

Eastern and Mountain Amateur Radio club recently launched a Pico Balloon (I did my examination for my USA license qualification there a few years ago) and they're based in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.

I thought some here might find it interesting to see some pictures of the process (the recovery and full data is yet to be made available as it needs to be processed still so the photo and tracking is preliminary).

Nb there are normally several ground moving vehicles involved during the descent phase as at lower altitudes the radio transponders range drops (they're basically line of sight and the lower the balloon the shorter the range).  At peak height they can be received from very long distances however.

In order (the start of filling of the balloon),

A photo taken from peak altitude (near the edge of space... you can see a slight curve to the earth and the thinning of the atmosphere is clearly visible.

And the descent tracking summary (with locations of the various tracking vehicles).

All of this information is published online, in advance of and during the process.
Other organizations have even more advanced systems flying.

Some are optimized for height (this one achieved just over 30 kilometers of elevation) but others are filled in such a way as to ride the jet streams and travel around the Earth for great disances.  Recently one travelled all the way around the Earth and then more before landing.

 

Edited February 19, 2023 by GeoffH