To be concerned about the balloon discovered hovering over Montana

[MeetPi]

The balloon is said to be a Chinese spy balloon up to three football fields long. In the last few minutes, another balloon has possibly been spotted over Canada - where the first balloon apparently came through to the US.

Purportedly President Biden wanted to shoot the balloon down, but the Pentagon convinced him otherwise, as this could prove a risk to people on the ground.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/02/pentagon-chinese-spy-balloon

Have you got a smart phone? Cookies on your laptop? You are already being spied on.

Ha! It's not April Fools Day is it? Surely with all the crap electronic stuff China produces they can produce something a wee bit more discreet to spy with then a frigging gigantic balloon?? 🤔 For once I think I actually do believe them when they say "calm down, calm down, its just a weather ship blown off course". Seriously though, when I read the headlines about it being a 'spy balloon' I just instantly imagined Austin Powers in a hot air balloon - no idea why!! 🤣

Are you a country?

Satellites are over over one location for moments. The Balloon can hover for long periods. It’s better than anything else at collecting information from a particular area.

There are different types of orbit.

FYI

www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Transportation/Types_of_orbits

@SamanthaCaine yes. My point still stands

Yep, agree it does...

With the one exception of geostationary orbits (for which you need to be out at about 35,000 km from the Earth, so of limited use for most types of surveillance ) satellites can't loiter at all...they go blatting around the Earth at about 8 kilometres a second so they can only get a very quick close'ish look at an area of interest with maybe one pass a day.

If you want more extended periods of surveillance and perhaps a closer look/listen than a satellite can provide then aircraft and to a limited extent balloons can still prove useful but are more vulnerable.

It does. A geosynchronous orbit puts the sensors very far from the target.

The WSJ has video of the shoot down. You can hear the warhead go off about 9 seconds in. This should be in front of the pay wall.

www.wsj.com/video/video-us-shoots-down-suspected-chinese-spy-balloon/6CD3B1DB-17B3-45D7-9D9E-3A27F850A3FB.html

Not arguing the point, just that satellites don't all pass by quickly.

But obviously depends on what the application is.

The sceptical west will naturally suspect surveillance but we're unlikely to ever know the truth, given the wreckage has been squirrelled off.

But an aircraft can only circle. The balloon is more effective when staying put is required and it can hover at 60,000 feet (an aircraft can’t go higher than 50,000), making it more difficult to spot and shoot down (in theory).

They say they will recover important equipment that will provide lots of data @SamanthaCaine Let’s hope that’s the case. The world is crazy isn’t it?

Just been poking around a well known conspiracy site.... there are three threads on this buzzing away with Stateside observers postulating all sorts.....

From how many balloons there are to whether it was potentially carrying some sort of payload.....

I remain open minded but still intrigued..... got nowt else to do tonight so will be keeping an eye on it - it's kind of Schroedingers diplomatic incident as far as I can tell - it both is and is not important.....

May we all live in strange and interesting times eh?

Crazy indeed.

It's easy to jump to conclusions given China's reputation but it's obvious that a deliberate spy balloon would heighten already fragile relations.

They (the US) have recovered the equipment and will pick it all apart so any hint of spying should be obvious. I just don't think that's the Chinese's style. They're experts at playing the long game over decades and already have more sophisticated means of acquiring surveillance.

They may well have deliberately sent a civilian balloon to test the water or steer attention away from something else but don't think they're as clumsy as the Americans.

Naturally I don't trust the Americans to report any truth of what they find either!

Why would you care? Do you live in the US?

Pop!

Balloon’s been shot down.

Do I think it was a weather balloon?

No I do not.

@SamanthaCaine I don’t trust the Americans either. Haven’t China admitted that these balloons are theirs? I heard that was the case.

So there’s war in Europe, and now the American military have shot down Chinese military equipment. Did not think we’d see this in my lifetime.

Slow handclap for the human race’s approach to tackling climate change and the increase in pandemics floods and fires that is bringing.

Sigh.

Many years ago, after I'd left home and was on way back to visit my parents in Dorset in the early hours of dawn, whilst driving through Wimborne on way to them, there was a glint of light that caught my eye... looked up and there was a large cigar shaped plane thing not too high above where I was...it had very short stubby wings and shone like aluminium might in sunlight. I stopped to watch, It was quite slow. There was a brief mention in a small paragraph near the back pages of the telegraph a few weeks later of Russian aircraft entering and leaving our airspace. Thats all they said. We do this too, sometimes it's military, sometimes it scientists doing ground surveys for earthquakes etc. Am pretty sure all sides know about these flights and probably warn each other in advance... why else does no country actually shoot them down as soon as they enter airspace?

Yes they have but have called for calm as they're saying it's an accident. Allegedly it was a civilian weather balloon, blown off course.

I've genuinely no idea if they're being truthful. It's easy to jump to conclusions but when it comes to spying, they're all as bad as each other.

@Shauny098

I say this with love….

STOP WATCHING THE NEWS!!!!!!

Thanks for your concern, Shauny. I prefer knowledge over ignorance, though, and am careful to not minimise my news sources to, say, just left-wing outlets. I read from a healthy spectrum.

I'm pleased to hear it's been brought down. Hopefully - eventually - we'll hear a bit more about the balloon's function. I don't believe the 'meteorological' spin. I'm aware satellites are so advanced they can read along with the newspaper you are holding, but a balloon - being lower down and more static - may be tracking sound. Just an idea.

They found a second one today though

Allegedly it was a civilian weather balloon, blown off course.

Weather balloons are much smaller.

Honestly I don't know. I'm reading opinions that this might be China embarrassing the west and demonstrating how easy it is to enter airspace.

Either way those more in the know think that balloon tech is limited and can already be achieved far more stealthily by existing spy satellites.

news.sky.com/story/chinese-spy-balloons-the-puzzling-theories-and-why-none-bode-well-for-us-china-relations-12802738

All nations have spy satellites which are known to each other. Every nation also has networks of spies located in other countries all the time. All of this is accepted by each nation as part of life. This kind of thing is odd by its blatant visibility to the public, which suggests it's not what we think it is.

That's very, very funny 😂