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Why are there no photos of any of these except the original Chinese balloon?
The original ballon was large enough to be noticed and photographed by civilians on the ground.
(/s, if that was necessary to clarify)
Random question - anyone know how a sidewinder missile hits these objects (whatever they are)? My missile knowledge is non-existent but movies show me it has something to do with heat signature - which these don’t seem to have.
From Huron in we have to demand answers
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also the weather balloons are launched on consistent schedule / from consistent consistent locations and they often have a transmitter that allows them to send back data and even be found right? Not to say one of these can't be a weather balloon, but I would expect these also are known possibilities / somewhat detectable / aren't trying to be sneaky ...
A "well behaved" balloon should also carry a corner reflector, so it clearly stands out on radar. https://www.overlookhorizon.com/how-to-launch-weather-balloo...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Something that puzzles me is how you specifically target China with a satellite. They can't be geostationary unless they're over the equator.
Lots and lots of satellites that keep passing overhead and you compose the images to abstract away the fact they came from multiple physical satellites. Idk how many companies/govs have this capability but: https://www.palantir.com/offerings/metaconstellation/
Balloons could be a clever counter to what the US is doing with Low Earth Orbit satellites recently. SpaceX is launching tons of spy/missile defense satellites over China as part of the Space Development Agency: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Development_Agency China has been complaining to the United Nations about it. https://press.un.org/en/2022/gadis3698.doc.htm More details: https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Star…
SpaceX has launched 8 Starshield satellites. Nobody knows what they do but they are probably testbeds for platform and space link communications. There are SDA launches planned for March and June. I wouldn't expect to see spy satellites from the SDA; the NRO has always controlled those. I could believe small spy satellites if launched from NRO. There haven't been any details on how missile defense will work from spac…
Random question - anyone know how a sidewinder missile hits these objects (whatever they are)? My missile knowledge is non-existent but movies show me it has something to do with heat signature - which these don’t seem to have.
Random question - anyone know how a sidewinder missile hits these objects (whatever they are)? My missile knowledge is non-existent but movies show me it has something to do with heat signature - which these don’t seem to have.
Countermeasures like flares try to trick a missile's sensor into thinking the hot object it was staring at was the flare going that way and not the maneuvering aircraft going the other way. Modern IR tracking missiles try to stay locked on the object by ignoring hotter or cooler objects that might end up in its view.