All I know is the story that was published in the WSJ earlier this afternoon. More details will be forthcoming over the weekend, I'm sure. A UFO, possibly? 😁
U.S. Shoots Down High-Altitude Object Over Alaska - Object was flying at 40,000 feet and posed threat to civilians, officials say
Updated Feb. 10, 2023 3:37 pm ET
WASHINGTON—The U.S. military downed a “high-altitude object” spotted in the sky over Alaska, the White House said Friday, marking at least the second time in less than a week the Biden administration took action to protect the skies over the U.S. airspace.
The U.S. couldn’t say who owned the object, but a White House official said it didn’t appear to have a sophisticated capacity to maneuver and appeared to be unmanned. The U.S. planned to recover the debris, which landed on frozen water in northeastern Alaska. That location could “make it easier for us to try to recover some of the debris,” John Kirby, a White House National Security Council spokesman, told reporters.
The U.S. first learned about the object Thursday night, Mr. Kirby said. The U.S. hadn’t attempted to reach out to China, Mr. Kirby said, as they did last week when a suspected Chinese spy balloon was spotted traveling across the U.S.
The object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a “reasonable threat to the safety of civilians,” Mr. Kirby said. The suspected Chinese spy balloon had been flying at roughly 60,000 feet.
In the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration monitors and controls airspace up to 60,000 feet for commercial and military traffic. Broad international agreement exists that the airspace under 60,000 feet is the dominion of the nation that controls the ground below it.
The military downed the object in U.S. territorial waters at the recommendation of President Biden, Mr. Kirby said. Mr. Biden was briefed on the matter Thursday night and gave the order to shoot down the object on Friday morning.
A fighter aircraft conducted two flights—one on Thursday and another earlier Friday—to assess the object. The object was downed at 1:45 p.m. ET on Friday, Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said. It entered U.S. airspace on Thursday, he said.
The Pentagon said Air Force aircraft were over the recovery site on Friday. Tracking site Flightradar24 showed an Air Force HC-130J aircraft flying offshore around an area northeast of Prudhoe Bay.
Mr. Kirby said the object was about the size of a car, smaller than the suspected Chinese spy balloon that the U.S. downed on Feb. 4. The balloon was about 200 feet long and carried a payload roughly the size of a jetliner, Pentagon officials said.