Free Republic

Yinpiao Zhou, a Chinese citizen, was arrested Monday and accused of using a drone to photograph the Vandenberg Space Force Base outside Santa Barbara, Calif. Zhou, 39, was charged with failure to register an aircraft not providing transportation and a violation of national defense airspace, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said in a release. He was arrested at San Francisco International Airport prior to boarding a China-bound flight. Vandenberg’s detection system spotted the drone on Nov. 30. The aircraft flew for nearly an hour, traveled to an altitude of about a mile above ground level...

A Chinese national has been arrested on suspicion of flying a drone to take photographs over a US Space Force base. Federal police arrested Yinpiao Zhou on Monday after he was allegedly caught flying a drone over the Vandenberg Space Force Base, in California. In a criminal complaint, the US Attorney’s Office said Mr Zhou flew a drone over the base and took photographs on Nov 30 – the same day it launched a rocket on behalf of the National Reconnaissance Office.

A 39-year-old Chinese national who resides in Brentwood was arrested moments before boarding a flight to China for flying a drone over and photographing Vandenberg Space Force Base late last month, officials announced Monday. According to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice, Yinpiao Zhou, a Chinese citizen and lawful permanent resident of the U.S., was arrested Dec. 9 at San Francisco International Airport prior to his flight.