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News Pentagon tracking suspected Chinese spy balloon over the US

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JEDI said:
then how did that 1st missile explode in that video?
what am i missing?
Click to expand...
high altitude balloons for circumnavigation typically have onboard helium tanks to maintain inflation. a fragment from the control fins on the missile or if it hit part of the undercarriage could have ripped off and the bits could easily pierce the He gas tank.
 
A theory as to what one of the three later objects might have been.

(I think I read that the three later entities were all at much lower altitudes than the first one...I suspect they will turn out to have been random floating junk, though the first I presume really was a Chinese spy thing)

The US Air Force may have shot down an Amateur Radio Pico Balloon over Canada

Since the famous takedown of a suspected Chinese spy balloon, US jets have shot down a total of three more unidentified balloon objects, now suspected by officials to be 'commercial or benign'. There is speculation that at least one these three objects may have been an amateur radio 'pico'...
www.rtl-sdr.com

There is speculation that at least one of the objects shot down over Canada, Yukon by a US Air Force jet may have been amateur radio pico balloon K9YO-15 which was launched from Illinois on October 10 2022. It was on it's seventh circumnavigation of the globe after being aloft for 123 days.
Click to expand...
 
gorobei said:
high altitude balloons for circumnavigation typically have onboard helium tanks to maintain inflation. a fragment from the control fins on the missile or if it hit part of the undercarriage could have ripped off and the bits could easily pierce the He gas tank.
Click to expand...

1676638479865.png

1676638464390.png

It looks like something exploded near the solar cells at the bottom of the balloon.

also, if it went through the balloon, why isnt there an image of the missile exiting?
 
"There is speculation that at least one of the objects shot down over Canada, Yukon by a US Air Force jet may have been amateur radio pico balloon K9YO-15 which was launched from Illinois on October 10 2022. It was on it's seventh circumnavigation of the globe after being aloft for 123 days. "

why was the USAF the ones shooting down that balloon in Canadian airspace?
doesnt canada have fighters?
 
JEDI said:
"There is speculation that at least one of the objects shot down over Canada, Yukon by a US Air Force jet may have been amateur radio pico balloon K9YO-15 which was launched from Illinois on October 10 2022. It was on it's seventh circumnavigation of the globe after being aloft for 123 days. "

why was the USAF the ones shooting down that balloon in Canadian airspace?
doesnt canada have fighters?
Click to expand...

I gather there's some sort of joint defence agreement that covers such things.

NORAD stands for North American Aerospace Defense Command, It's not USAD
en.wikipedia.org

NORAD - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

I mean, it would be awkward if Soviet nuclear bombers had flown over the North Pole and the US had to stand around and watch until they reached the US-Canadian border.
 
pmv said:
I gather there's some sort of joint defence agreement that covers such things.

NORAD stands for North American Aerospace Defense Command, It's not USAD
en.wikipedia.org

NORAD - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

I mean, it would be awkward if Soviet nuclear bombers had flown over the North Pole and the US had to stand around and watch until they reached the US-Canadian border.
Click to expand...
i would expect canada to launch fighters when that Russian bomber is approaching canadian air space
 
pmv said:
I gather there's some sort of joint defence agreement that covers such things.

NORAD stands for North American Aerospace Defense Command, It's not USAD
en.wikipedia.org

NORAD - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

I mean, it would be awkward if Soviet nuclear bombers had flown over the North Pole and the US had to stand around and watch until they reached the US-Canadian border.
Click to expand...
My late uncle was a Lt. Colonel in the USAF in the 60’s, they used to fly/patrol the North Pole for just that reason. It was called the DEW Line.
 
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So is the whole kerfuffle over now?

I still don't really understand it all. What useful information would the Chinese have gotten from their spy balloon (going on the assumption that the first one was definitely such a spying device, even if the others were just random floating sky junk)?

And is there really any grounds for the US to get super-outraged about it all, given that it seems like this sort of thing goes on all the time (someone mentioned the U2 - didn't the US regularly overfly Russia with those things back in the day? Then again, the Russkies did shoot one down, so I suppose all's fair in espionage and Cold war, they can send them up and the US can shoot them down and everyone's happy, and at least everything is unmanned so nobody dies)
 
hal2kilo said:
After seeing the above picture, it would appear that they shot the Fn payload. Good luck with recovery.
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Here is a better pic of the payload intact.
china-balloon-rt-rc-230206_1675701820261_hpMain_2_16x9_992.jpg
 
Ok, I just left my sisters house in WV about 10:45 and thought I would look up to see if I could see Venus "kissing" Jupiter. I saw what I thought were stars but looking closer they were moving and not blinking. I noticed another in formation beside it and then further back and further out two more in formation with the first two. The more I looked the more I saw non-blinking lights all headed the same direction with no sound. I bet there were at least a dozen. They were headed "southish" best I could tell. It was mostly cloudy so maybe they were doing maneuvers or chasing an object or were the objects but got spotted by us when the clouds broke up a bit. I've never seen anything like this in my life.
 
balloonshark said:
Ok, I just left my sisters house in WV about 10:45 and thought I would look up to see if I could see Venus "kissing" Jupiter. I saw what I thought were stars but looking closer they were moving and not blinking. I noticed another in formation beside it and then further back and further out two more in formation with the first two. The more I looked the more I saw non-blinking lights all headed the same direction with no sound. I bet there were at least a dozen. They were headed "southish" best I could tell. It was mostly cloudy so maybe they were doing maneuvers or chasing an object or were the objects but got spotted by us when the clouds broke up a bit. I've never seen anything like this in my life.
Click to expand...
If they were all kind of moving in a line together, you probably saw part of a starlink constellation.
 
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