So called "Weather Balloon" - what are your thoughts??

[Valkrocket]

It was shot down right over my head here in Surfside Beach, SC.......... Only took 1 shot from my 30-6 to bring her down. Some folks may say I cheated by using my Sightmark Wraith HD scope, but I say "All's fair in love and war." 697d0fa6c2f36a243a0ee430de489e56.jpg

[Valkrocket]

10-4 on the politics ...... last I heard - an F 22 Raptor flying at about 58,000 ft ( 11 miles ) took it down with one " sidewinder " missile..... I didn't think they could fly that high ( the F-22 )...... Mike

Don't believe everything you hear on the news Mike. See my post on page 2.

[RangerRick]

I read where the ballon was the size of a couple of buses. Kind of hard to miss a couple of buses floating lazily across the country. And I seem to remember Japan dropped a bomb on Oregon using a balloon during WW II.

Yes they did. I have been to the site, was a a somber experience.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/frem...a/?recid=59797

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Don't believe everything you hear on the news Mike. See my post on page 2.

I don't ....... I watched it happen LIVE ...... Mike

[Peteoz]

I had to laugh at our ABC (Aus Broadcasting Commission) reporting this………

‘The balloon remains were last seen “descending downwards towards the ground”. Proof reading is a thing of the past, as is the quality of journalists.

Pete

[GuruSMI]

I had to laugh at our ABC (Aus Broadcasting Commission) reporting this………

‘The balloon remains were last seen “descending downwards towards the ground”. Proof reading is a thing of the past, as is the quality of journalists.

Pete

Here in Germany the same. I still wait that the reporters start to talk/write in Baby-Language. They're almost at that point.

[Pandy]

Good shot, Val. Hey maybe we should send Jim Cantore to wherever that ballon came from. From my time in Charleston and elsewhere on the East coast, every time I saw him on tv, it had hit the fan.
Cheers, David

[GuruSMI]

... wherever that ballon came from...

In german TV they said that the balloon flew over Alaska and Canada, Montana,...

[Little Blue]

.....Now that everyone knows the Story, Time to move on with LIFE.

Remember Spring is coming in a month or so.

IN the USA. ...........

[Saluda]

Don't think the full story will be revealed until whatever parts can be retrieved have been analyzed.

[safecracker]

Should have been taken out over Alaska. My 2 cents.

[Pirate]

Should have been taken out over Alaska. My 2 cents.

I agree. Not a good look.

[UtahPete]

Should have been taken out over Alaska. My 2 cents.

You mean before they had determined what it was?

[Cobwebs]

Early reports had it at too high an altitude to stick a hole in it.

[Pirate]

You mean before they had determined what it was?

Anything that travels into our airspace should be met with a visual deterrent and then shot down if found to be a threat.

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Should have been taken out over Alaska. My 2 cents.

I think waiting was the smarter way to go.

When the military first saw it they probably weren't sure what it was. It took a day or two to figure that out.

If they shot it down over the US hundreds, if not thousands, of scavengers would have converged on the site and who knows what kind of valuable pieces would have been sold as souvenirs and maybe even to Chinese shills. That would have hampered learning as much as possible about the Chinese technology than if we could get our hands on the whole thing, or as much as would be recoverable.

The US military more or less admitted they jammed the payload's capacity to phone home so whatever intelligence it gathered never got back to the Chinese. Hence, no harm resulted from letting it float.

The military probably wanted to let it to gather as much intel as it could so we could better understand what sort of intel the Chinese were really after.

IMO there was a lot more on the upside than the downside by letting it float. Biden's order to make sure it landed without harming citizens was a ruse for the real reason for letting it float.

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Years ago I read that during the Manhattan Project in WWII the leaders of the project knew there were German spies in the program. They let them be but watched them closely. By watching what sort of information the German spies were after the Americans kept tabs on the status of Germany's nuclear development program. What better way to know what Germany was up to than letting their own spies tip us off.

[UtahPete]

Years ago I read that during the Manhattan Project in WWII the leaders of the project knew there were German spies in the program. They let them be but watched them closely. By watching what sort of information the German spies were after the Americans kept tabs on the status of Germany's nuclear development program. What better way to know what Germany was up to than letting their own spies tip us off.

I'd like to think the decision to delay the downing of the balloon was strategic as well as tactical (i.e. waiting until it was over shallow waters).

[UtahPete]

Early reports had it at too high an altitude to stick a hole in it.

So much for that idea.

[Cobwebs]

So much for that idea.

It was at a lower altitude when shot down. Question is why would you put it in firing range on purpose with the whole world watching.

[Valkrocket]

It was at a lower altitude when shot down. Question is why would you put it in firing range on purpose with the whole world watching.

"Testing 1,2,3".......

[Raven]

I don't think they will find much. Free falling from 60,000 feet, the impact would be something else.
Besides, as Navydad said why use a balloon when hey have satellites that can count the warts on your butt.
I think they were just being trying to get a rise from everyone to cause trouble.
If so it worked.

[Gwolf]

I don't think they will find much. Free falling from 60,000 feet, the impact would be something else.
Besides, as Navydad said why use a balloon when hey have satellites that can count the warts on your butt.
I think they were just being trying to get a rise from everyone to cause trouble.
If so it worked.

The speed of a drifting ballon vs the speed of an orbiting satellite will have a huge affect on final picture quality. The difference in the speed of the camera and the speed of the subject will determine the picture quality. To get about the same picture quality as a balloon, the satellite would need to be almost geo-stationary. Not very practical for a spy satellite



That fails to take into account the deflated streamering ballon that is retarding the free fall. Calculating the velocity of the fall, has to take into account both mass and weight. Mass has nothing to do with how much the object weighs. It is about the area of air resistance to the speed increasing. The remaining pieces of the deflated balloon still attached to the object will act as a drogue chute, slowing the decent and stabalizing the tumbling motions.

Old airdrop specialists know a few things.

[azprince]

Hahahahahaha

[BajaRon]

How do we know it was made in China ?

No one makes anything anywhere else, these days. No brainer...

So why china wanna know USA weather?

Tourists...

I had to laugh at our ABC (Aus Broadcasting Commission) reporting this………

‘The balloon remains were last seen “descending downwards towards the ground”. Pete

And here I thought Isaac Newton proved gravity existed in 1665! Maybe that reporter missed this obscure fact.

But I don't really know what all the fuss is about. I like balloons!