# The Pentagon is tracking a Chinese spy balloon **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 3, 2023, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228 "2023-02-03T01:32:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 37
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228/722 "2023-02-13T23:13:16Z")
There are potentially thousands of balloon-like objects floating around at high altitudes. Before we get to aliens, perhaps we should consider these and the many other simple craft like them: > **[RC Blimps, Airships, Aerostats and Custom LTA](https://www.rc-zeppelin.com/)** > > RC Blimps made since 1999 by Aero Drum Ltd. Indoor, Outdoor RC Blimp, Solar Airships, Surveillance Aerostats and Custom design Envelopes ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228/723 "2023-02-13T23:18:20Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > There are potentially thousands of balloon-like objects floating around at high altitudes. Before we get to aliens, perhaps we should consider these and the many other simple craft like them: This sounds a lot like something an alien that arrived in a balloon-like object would say. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228/724 "2023-02-13T23:22:18Z")
(Now I have to kill him) ---
**Author:** ![WellHelloThere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9dc877/32.png) [@WellHelloThere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WellHelloThere)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2023, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228/725 "2023-02-13T23:24:14Z")
Fellow earth inhabitants, let us please keep our primitive earth brains focused on realistic situations. Any discussion of aliens is ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2023, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228/726 "2023-02-14T01:05:44Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Bullet holes just aren’t big enough to bring a balloon down, apparently. You’re making the assumption that they were hitting the balloon. They’re not much use for air to air combat. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2023, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228/727 "2023-02-14T01:54:48Z")
> [@WellHelloThere](#): > > Fellow earth inhabitants, let us please keep our primitive earth brains focused on realistic situations. Any discussion of aliens is ridiculous. Your username is disturbingly close to “Greetings, Earthlings!” rendered by a less-than-perfect universal translator. Color me somewhat worried. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2023, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228/728 "2023-02-14T02:15:04Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > Are we to believe that China sent these objects into North American airspace after their spy balloon got caught and caused an international incident? I posted earlier that they may send some legitimate weather balloons over so that they may say to the UN, “I told you so!” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2023, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228/729 "2023-02-14T02:15:52Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Your username is disturbingly close to “Greetings, Earthlings!” rendered by a less-than-perfect universal translator. > > Color me somewhat worried. Don’t be silly! If it were really aliens, they wouldn’t let us talk abo ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2023, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228/730 "2023-02-14T03:10:46Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > (Now I have to kill him) (Shhh, use a more neutral word, such as neutralize, liquidate, or fertilizerize. They’re on to you!) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2023, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228/731 "2023-02-14T03:30:57Z")
I don’t know if this has been mentioned in this long thread, but as I posted in another thread, I just found this article from November of 2022: > **[China demonstrates its heavy payload scientific balloon with latest test flight](https://interestingengineering.com/science/china-heavy-payload-balloon-test)** > > China lifted a high-altitude balloon containing 1.2 tons of scientific payloads into the sky up to an altitude of approximately 18 miles (30 km) as part of a demonstration test It looks like China has been open about the development of what looks to be the very type of balloon in question. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2023, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228/732 "2023-02-14T03:45:28Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I posted earlier that they may send some legitimate weather balloons over so that they may say to the UN, “I told you so!” Well maybe they shouldn’t have posted a [video of a balloon launch in 2018](https://www.google.com/search?tbm=vid&q=china+balloon+hypersonic+missile&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjL9rbRi5T9AhWGkYkEHUchAWMQ8ccDegQINBAH&biw=1366&bih=573&dpr=1#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:492eaaa1,vid:fQqiPwyHE2A) of what looks like 3 hypersonic missiles. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2023, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228/733 "2023-02-14T04:01:15Z")
Here’s a launch site for Chinese balloons, according to a Wall Street Journal article: > > [@](#): > > And in the desolate grasslands of Inner Mongolia, an octagon-shaped slab of concrete marks what is thought to be a launch site for Chinese balloons, according to San Francisco-based satellite-imaging firm Planet Labs PBC, which provided The Wall Street Journal with the photo, and identified by Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, Calif. > **[China’s Balloon Program Grew From a Humble Start](https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-balloon-program-grew-from-a-humble-start-11675974996)** > > Modest beginnings have given way to a modern program of towering data-vacuums aloft that are rattling the U.S. military establishment.  ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2023, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228/734 "2023-02-14T07:08:42Z")
> [@WellHelloThere](#): > > Fellow earth inhabitants, let us please keep our primitive earth brains focused on realistic situations. Any discussion of aliens is ridiculous. YouTube recommended a video of some nitwits asking questions about the new balloons, and, maybe seriously, thinking it could be aliens. Not all the coverage mentioned the balloon part as opposed to the payload, so they assumed the payload was flying by itself. Which I think would have been mentioned. In the comments I notes that if these were aliens, they were the stupidest aliens ever. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2023, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228/735 "2023-02-14T10:11:48Z")
So either we’re being invaded by aliens, or we’re entering a new steampunk age of airship warfare. We live in interesting times. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2023, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228/736 "2023-02-14T10:31:02Z")
So now the US has two teams, one investigating UFO/UAP reports from the recent past, and one investigating apparent balloon incursions in the past few days. There may not be any overlap in membership or objectives, but both investigations include at least some events that are probably the result of Chinese spy missions. The first report described at least 26 events as ‘drones or drone-like’, some of which seem to have been associated with Chinese spy ships. This is the cold war of the future- increasingly sophisticated drones and spy balloons in a wide field of operations. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2023, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228/737 "2023-02-14T10:46:27Z")
> [@WellHelloThere](#): > > We are a couple decades ahead on satellites. I think the advantage of a balloon is that it isn’t as high and can take better pictures. Balloons also move slower, allowing more time over a particular location. They’re also harder to spot, or at least were harder to spot. > [@WellHelloThere](#): > > China still says it was a weather observation craft. Knowing full well we can show proof otherwise. Maybe it actually was what they said. I very, very much doubt it. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2023, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228/738 "2023-02-14T10:47:27Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > China is claiming that they’re tracking an object floating over their air space. If - and that’s a big question - we are violating their airspace they have every legal right to shoot down whatever we are allegedly violating their space with. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2023, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228/739 "2023-02-14T12:17:52Z")
> [@WellHelloThere](#): > > The disjointed and unhinged reaction to the first object almost invites a nation to do this as a “poke”. The US is acting very pokeable right now. We’re sort of stuck, here. If we don’t respond we invite more and more stuff to come into our airspace. If we do respond we’re “over-reacting”. Our response is neither “disjointed” nor “unhinged” even if it is not efficient. We do need a cheaper effective way to down these things, though. > [@WellHelloThere](#): > > If we are going back that far, we can talk about the U2 spyplane as well. A major diplomatic fiasco when the Soviets shot one down. I just looked, it appears we actually still use them. Did not know that. Yes, in fact one was used to observe the first balloon, the one shot down off the Carolinas, while it was crossing the country. > [@dtilque](#): > > Some day, we’re going to realize we’re wasting expensive missiles on harmless targets and stop shooting down everything in sight. I hope that day comes soon. We are not, actually, “shooting down everything in sight”. There is a lot of stuff up in the air that most people remain blissfully unaware of. > [@OldOlds](#): > > I am unable to recall where I read it, but one thing I read said that normally the radars (or whatever) are tuned to ignore these types of things, lest they go after every sparrow and Estes model rocket. Back when I was flying ultralights and Cessna 150’s I did have the occasional problem of flying too slowly to show up on air traffic control radar. In the Cessna this was solved with the use of a transponder. With the ultralights… well, just not allowed in that airspace for the most part (at least, not without prior permission, the details of which would be a major hijack here). The filters do make the job of traffic controller easier, otherwise the radar screen can look like some sneezed on it after splashing/spraying paint all over it. As I’ve said, there’s actually a lot of stuff up in the air. > [@OldOlds](#): > > Which feeds into my opinion that the first one was real, and these others have been hysterics. If it was “hysterics” there would be a LOT more of these things being shot down. There’s some decision process as to which are worthy of lethal attention and which aren’t. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2023, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228/740 "2023-02-14T12:37:27Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > White House press secretary today: "there is no - again, no - indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns.” Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Yeah, I doubt it’s ET’s - I’d expect them to have much better ability to evade being spotted. Unless they want to be. But then I doubt they’d want to be spotted to be shot down. > [@simster](#): > > I have to wonder if some of these objects are the same ones that have been seen on navy pilot footage of similar ‘mysterious’ objects. It wouldn’t surprise me. I suspect some of the shooting-down is prompted by the public and politics. The military can learn a lot of from watching something as opposed to destroying it, and I expect the USAF is better at evaluating threats from flying objects than I am. > [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Booked a hot air balloon ride with my wife for valentine’s day. Should i cancel? Need answer fast! The last time I went on a hot air balloon ride (near Phoenix, Arizona) the balloon was equipped with a transponder, two-way radio, and a pilot capable and willing to communicate with air traffic control. The risk is minimal. The authorities do know the difference between legit balloons and unknown objects of unknown origin/ownership. (I’m not so sure about some of the general public, but I digress…) Go for it. I had a great time. > [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I don’t know if this has been mentioned in this long thread, but as I posted in another thread, I just found this article from November of 2022: > > [China lifts a heavy scientific payload balloon high into the sky](https://interestingengineering.com/science/china-heavy-payload-balloon-test) > > It looks like China has been open about the development of what looks to be the very type of balloon in question. If you’re doing legit research AND actually keeping track of your stuff you can easily notify ATC/governments/relevant authorities along the flight path that “Hey, this is our stuff and this is what it is and pretty please don’t shoot it down. 'Kay? Thx.” If you’re sneakin’ 'round you’re going to be viewed with suspicion and get a possible hostile response. Unless you’re suggesting that the Chinese government was incapable of such notification despite this being down by everyone from licensed pilots to backyard rocketry clubs. It’s stupid easy to notify ATC in this country, and that’s by design. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2023, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228/741 "2023-02-14T13:51:50Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > … or we’re entering a new steampunk age of airship warfare. We live in interesting times. > [@eburacum45](#): > > This is the cold war of the future- increasingly sophisticated drones and spy balloons in a wide field of operations. Both true. Which cold war pales in comparison to the one being fought every day within the internet. Which also goes unnoticed by most of the general public. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228.md?page=36) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-pentagon-is-tracking-a-chinese-spy-balloon/979228.md?page=38)