Chinese spy balloon

While reports lack specificity ...... it appears the previous flights were not detected or were not deemed to be Chinese balloons until after 1/20/2021. It's possible the flights were detected when they occurred, but not deemed to be Chinese spy balloons (if that what they really were). What's a little more difficult to believe is, somehow after 1/20/2021 these prior flights were "detected" ..... after the fact. What did the DOD do ..... go back and review years of NORAD records to find these prior incursions?? Seems there's more to this story.

>>What set the previous balloon flights apart is that they were much shorter in duration, which may be why some of them went undetected at the time, a senior administration official told The Wall Street Journal.

The sightings were only discovered "after the prior administration left," senior defense officials told both The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.<<

China flew spy balloons over the US while Trump was president, but nobody realized until after he left office, reports say (msn.com)

 

Why not shoot it down over Montana, debris hitting someone in Montana, Wyoming or Nebraska is just about as common as hitting someone in a boat off the Carolina coast. Plenty of open space in those western states.

 

I never believed they were worried about someone getting hit by debris. I think this was the reason, not to mention they felt they were blocking any actual gathering and transmission back to source.

 

That thread is over my pay grade, but I agree that the idea of immediately blowing up defenseless, slow moving enemy assets without understanding what they are seemed knee jerk. This was a good opportunity for us to spy as well. Why waste that opportunity.

 

That said, I can only imagine the fallout if the debris has taken out a house, apartment complex, or vehicles on a highway had it been shot down over land.

 

Well, China said it might retaliate ...

 

Its time to come clean City.

Here goes...City and I have been sending messages (via baloon) from the western part of the state over here to the coast, just as a backup if the internet ever goes black. How else are we gonna squabble about Roy Cooper then?!

Now we have to start from scratch.

 

Let's see if I can create a left wing talking point:

The spy balloon has demanded to be identified as a weather balloon and should be allowed to do so.

Sound good?

 

Out of curiosity, at what altitude does a nation's protected air space cease and become essentially free reign? I tried a quick search and see different class levels but it's not clear to me how it works.

 

I was wondering the same thing, albeit from a different angle, and one may provide the answer. I know there is a treaty that space cannot be the property of any nation. I was curious as to the legal definition of "space", which I'm presuming is either defined scientifically as above a certain "sphere", likely earth's atmosphere, or just the number of feet above sea level.

 

WW3

 

Wiki says:

There is no international agreement on the vertical extent of sovereign airspace,[citation needed] with suggestions ranging from about 30 km (19 mi)—the extent of the highest aircraft and balloons—to about 160 km (100 mi)—approximately the lowest extent of short-term stable orbits. (The satellite Lixing-1 had a stable orbit with an apogee of 140 km (87 mi) for three days.)[6] The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale has established the Kármán line—at an altitude of 100 km (62 mi)—as the boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and outer space,[7] while the United States considers anyone who has flown above 80 kilometres (50 mi) to be an astronaut[citation needed]. Indeed, descending Space Shuttles flew closer than 80 km (50 mi) over other nations, such as Canada, without requesting permission first.[8] Nonetheless, both the Kármán line and the U.S. definition are merely working benchmarks, without any real legal authority over matters of national sovereignty.

 

19 miles is about 100,000 feet, with so the balloon at 60,000 was in that range.

But, we make a point of sailing Navy ships though waters that China calls their territorial waters, and telling them we don't recognize their claims, so maybe this is China's way of retaliating.

 

Or at very least trolling.

 

Points for effort

 

Because it was stupid right? Thats my point.

 

not above my pay grade. I think post #68 puts it in simpler terms despite a 'come on man'.

 

If the situation was reversed, anybody here believe our balloon would have been allowed to traverse the entire country before China shot it down?

 

From Faux News (JG is a great pentagon correspondent).

The Baloon was tracked from nainland China on Jan 21st. It crossed the Aleutian Islands for a couple of minutes (they couldn’t shoot it down because it would have been in international waters) and it crossed quickly into Canada then entered the US over Idaho. Once over the CONTUS it was jammed like crazy by the Pentagon. Nothing got out. They had an 18 minute window to take it down before it entered international waters of Myrtle Beach.

They saw it all the way, neutralized it and orchestrated a “soft” landing where they could easily retrieve it. If there’s any tech of value (doubtful) we just picked up an intelligence coup.

My guess this was a mistake. Somewhere deep in the bowels of the Chinese military some nitwit green lighted this and I’d wager he’s no longer breathing.

Fox News Reports Pentagon Blocked Chinese Spy Balloon From Collecting Data From Sensitive Sites With ‘Security Protections, Shields’

 

No but if anyone in China was crushed by debris they'd simply be collected for organ harvesting whereas here people are actually at least not deliberately harmed, even if only to avoid politicians looking bad.