The original is in full color with GPS co-ordinates intact and 12 M resolution.
This smaller lack-and-white has the Top Secret details removed so the public can understand the enormity of the situation.
Posted on 02/13/2023 8:39:10 PM PST by SeekAndFind
It could also have been recording, not transmitting data and the Chinese or their surrogates or fishing boats were expecting to recover the balloon at sea or some distant place after it transitted the US and made a preprogrammed controlled descent, and get their information that way.
The original is in full color with GPS co-ordinates intact and 12 M resolution.
This smaller lack-and-white has the Top Secret details removed so the public can understand the enormity of the situation.
The Chinese, Russians, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and Cuba have been cooperating for years, especially well since 2008 and the Silk Road project. Some of these objects could be Russian.
My guess…. I don’t have a lot to go on. Early on in the South Carolina saga, I saw some amateur photos and news mentions that give me some opinions.
Re. the Sidewinder taking down the Carolina balloon, I saw a picture of the balloon after the missile hit that showed a chunk of the balloon fabric missing. Yes, that loss of lift brought the balloon down. No, the Sidewinder did not blow anything up. I have the impression that it was more like the kinetic energy of the sidewinder grazing the edge of the balloon and just disintegrated off a chunk of fabric.
It’s not transmitting down to the cell network from 60k feet. It’s obviously using satellite uplink, and no, the satellite doesn’t have to be in geosynchronous orbit.
Wonder how many NORAD weather balloons continue to drift around after their useful life expires? Wonder how many of the mystery balloons being shot down by Crazy Joe are old NORAD balloons?
That was tried before years ago and didn’t work. This balloon was 200 ft tall from all reports so imagine a balloon the size of a 20 story building and how many holes it would take to bring it down where you want it. I’m thinking thousand and thousands of rounds, multiple flights of high altitude fighters that would have to land to reload. Maybe we could figure out how to do a mid-air reload but I doubt it.
so much for the SpaceForce...
So far it looks like the balloon has been recovered, but what about the payload?
20lbs blast fragmentation warhead...enough to blow the wing off a jet.
In regard to the small objects, a sidewinder is pretty expensive compared to a radiosonde.
I would suspect that the F-22 pilot would do a target acquisition lock on the balloon itself and fire a sidewinder that has been detuned with minimal explosive, just enough to destroy the balloon without obliterating the payload.
RE: So far it looks like the balloon has been recovered, but what about the payload?
Read the article ( and the title ).
It says ‘windy today with clouds’.
“I believe the warhead was defused on these sidewinder”
Why would you believe that?
I saw a report mentioning it at the time. Went looking but didn’t find it.
I believe it could be correct. The intention could have been to limit damage to preserve as much as possible for recovery.
Not at 60k feet
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