U.S. shoots down 'high-altitude object' over Alaskan airspace

[+OverSword]

Quote

 

The U.S. military on Friday afternoon shot down a "high-altitude object" flying over Alaskan airspace and Arctic waters, National Security Council official John Kirby confirmed at the White House.

The Pentagon had been tracking the object over the last 24 hours, he said.

"The object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight," Kirby told reporters during the White House briefing. "Out of an abundance of caution, and at the recommendation of the Pentagon, President Biden ordered the military to down the object and they did and it came inside our territorial waters and those waters right now are frozen."

 

Link

Amazingly they didn't take days to program a missile to do it correctly.   These things have to be very precise we were told.  Must have been like a one in a million lucky shot 

But no worries.  Everything adds up and we can always believe what we are told. 

Quote

"We're calling this an object because that's the best description we have right now," Kirby said. "We do not know who owns it, whether it's state-owned or corporate-owned or privately owned. We just don't know."

 Wow.

My guess, a kids birthday balloon escaped from a party in Mongolia. 

Edited February 10, 2023 by OverSword

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

1 minute ago, OverSword said:

Link

[+susieice]

I just saw this on the news.

[JVG]

Rumor has it that it was the Trump baby balloon in a diaper…

[+OverSword]

[+Shooter McGavin]

We have this man to thank for. He brought it down. We need more people like him in congress.

 

 

Edited February 10, 2023 by Shooter McGavin

[lightly]

What altitude was this thing?  How big was it?  Could it have been recovered somehow?  What if the thing was Loaded with a virus completely lethal to Caucasians …but one which Asians, and others?, were completely GENETICALLY immune to?    In a case like that, it might have been the stupidest thing this country ever did …to blow it up in currents of air about to transverse the United States..coast to coast!    I think it was completely irresponsible …but it makes uncle joe look like he’s on the ball .. and like a tuff guy sheriff ..cleaning up dodge!     Maybe the sickening Marjorie Taylor Green was right!    “ idiot! “.  

[Grim Reaper 6]

1 hour ago, susieice said:

I just saw this on the news.

So far the Pentagon isn’t even saying it was a balloon, they are saying it was flying at approximately 40,000 ft and that it was about the size of a car. Apparently it went down and crashed in an area covered with ice so recovery will be much easier.

[+susieice]

12 minutes ago, lightly said:

What altitude was this thing?  How big was it?  Could it have been recovered somehow?  What if the thing was Loaded with a virus completely lethal to Caucasians …but one which Asians, and others?, were completely GENETICALLY immune to?    In a case like that, it might have been the stupidest thing this country ever did …to blow it up in currents of air about to transverse the United States..coast to coast!    I think it was completely irresponsible …but it makes uncle joe look like he’s on the ball .. and like a tuff guy sheriff ..cleaning up dodge!     Maybe the sickening Marjorie Taylor Green was right!    “ idiot! “.  

Well, let me see. It was at 40,000 ft and deemed a threat to civilian airlines. They are going now to retrieve it. The ocean in the Arctic is frozen. They'll get it.

Gotta say, it was much smaller and lower than the balloon so they must have made corrections in being able to detect these things.

[Grim Reaper 6]

14 minutes ago, lightly said:

What altitude was this thing?  How big was it?  Could it have been recovered somehow?  What if the thing was Loaded with a virus completely lethal to Caucasians …but one which Asians, and others?, were completely GENETICALLY immune to?    In a case like that, it might have been the stupidest thing this country ever did …to blow it up in currents of air about to transverse the United States..coast to coast!    I think it was completely irresponsible …but it makes uncle joe look like he’s on the ball .. and like a tuff guy sheriff ..cleaning up dodge!     Maybe the sickening Marjorie Taylor Green was right!    “ idiot! “.  

No such virus exists, but that very funny anyway thanks for the laugh

[+susieice]

1 minute ago, Grim Reaper 6 said:

So far the Pentagon isn’t even saying it was a balloon, they are saying it was flying at approximately 40,000 ft and that it was about the size of a car. Apparently it went down and crashed in an area covered with ice so recovery will be much easier.

I just told lightly that. How many of these things can there be up there? The US is crisscrossed by thousands of flights every day. Have pilots been reporting seeing things?

I also just posted in the other thread that the military has located the payload from the balloon and it's mostly intact. They're going to use a crane to bring it up.

[Tatetopa]

29 minutes ago, lightly said:

What altitude was this thing?  How big was it?

Latest I have heard is 40,000 ft.  and about the size of a car.  40k feet is getting down into commercial levels or just above.  Previous one s have been around 60-65k.

Easy to shoot down if you don't want to retrieve the package and don't have to worry about where it lands.

The Chinese have been rather ungracious and butt hurt about our shooting down a balloon that made a transit across the continental US.  Maybe we figured once is enough.

After all the hell raised last time, maybe Biden just didn't want Marjorie's constituents shooting up in the air at a balloon  8 miles high (could almost be a song) and having bullets falling down on their neighbors.

Just curious, do private citizens own any firearms capable of delivering a bullet 8 miles straight up?  Do people with common sense discharge firearms at targets they know are out of range?

[Grim Reaper 6]

4 minutes ago, susieice said:

I just told lightly that. How many of these things can there be up there? The US is crisscrossed by thousands of flights every day. Have pilots been reporting seeing things?

I have no idea how many of these objects are up there, in fact based upon the size of this one, It could have been launched by a group of civilians and not even a country. The interesting thing about this situation is the Pentagon is not even saying this was a balloon, but if it’s not a balloon what is it?

The Pentagon said the reason this was shot down was because of the altitude, 40,000 feet is the cruising altitude of Civilian Aircraft crossing the Pacific to Asia or back to the United States.

The Speculation on the other Balloon thread was ridiculous, and peoples minds were running away with them because they simply didn’t understand the Balloons capabilities. The first Balloon was not sent to take photos, it was sent to intercept communications being  transmitted from one location to another. Once recorded these transmissions were being sent back to China, what makes no sense is that the device was not capable of decrypting transmissions thought. So, only signals transmitted in the clear unencrypted would be valuable. I suspect they were transmitting cell phone communications back to China. I believe they were hoping to record classified communications in the clear between two individuals.

The idea that the balloon was taking video or photographs is completely ridiculous. The reason this makes no sense is because Satellites are used today to photograph other Nations Secure Military bases. ICBM Locations and other classified secure areas. In 1998-1999 I saw Satellite footage taken of North Korea, and to give you an idea how good Satellite footage is if someone was walking down a street holding a can of Coca Cola, you could read the name on the can by zooming in using a Satellite. So, to send a balloon to take video and photographs is just not worth the time or the risk of getting caught. 

4 minutes ago, susieice said:

I also just posted in the other thread that the military has located the payload from the balloon and it's mostly intact. They're going to use a crane to bring it up.

Hopefully we will fully understand what kind of transmission they we’re recording very soon.

Peace Susie hope the information about helps. 

[DarkHunter]

7 minutes ago, Tatetopa said:

Just curious, do private citizens own any firearms capable of delivering a bullet 8 miles straight up?  Do people with common sense discharge firearms at targets they know are out of range?

For the first question that is a yes and no.  The largest caliber that can legally owned before getting into destructive devices is 50 caliber and the 50 bmg round can only get up to about 10,000 to 15,000 feet at absolute best.  So the overwhelming majority of privately owned guns wouldn't be able to reach whatever was shot down.  But destructive devices are a thing and can be owned and something that fires a 20mm round might be able to reach whatever was shot down, larger rounds can almost certainly reach the required altitude, and there are definitely private citizens that own cannons that fire 20mm rounds and larger even if extremely rare.

As for the second question that is a yes, you would be surprised how bad people are at estimating distance and in knowing the capability of what they are shooting.  

[docyabut2]

The free countries of the world should be afraid of what China is trying do on their balloons.  They might be planning over taking our countries by putting atomic bombs on the balloons  

Edited February 11, 2023 by docyabut2

[+susieice]

36 minutes ago, Tatetopa said:

Latest I have heard is 40,000 ft.  and about the size of a car.  40k feet is getting down into commercial levels or just above.  Previous one s have been around 60-65k.

Easy to shoot down if you don't want to retrieve the package and don't have to worry about where it lands.

The Chinese have been rather ungracious and butt hurt about our shooting down a balloon that made a transit across the continental US.  Maybe we figured once is enough.

After all the hell raised last time, maybe Biden just didn't want Marjorie's constituents shooting up in the air at a balloon  8 miles high (could almost be a song) and having bullets falling down on their neighbors.

Just curious, do private citizens own any firearms capable of delivering a bullet 8 miles straight up?  Do people with common sense discharge firearms at targets they know are out of range?

They are going to retrieve this. The ocean is frozen so it won't be too difficult. We'll find out what it is. I don't know if you can reach that high with antiaircraft guns. They used jets for both.

[docyabut2]

We should shoot down any object in our air space, even aliens 

[Grim Reaper 6]

1 hour ago, Tatetopa said:

Latest I have heard is 40,000 ft.  and about the size of a car.  40k feet is getting down into commercial levels or just above.  Previous one s have been around 60-65k.

According to the Pentagon this morning that’s exactly ( The Altitude) why they shot this OBJECT because they are not calling it a balloon

1 hour ago, Tatetopa said:

Easy to shoot down if you don't want to retrieve the package and don't have to worry about where it lands.

The Chinese have been rather ungracious and butt hurt about our shooting down a balloon that made a transit across the continental US.  Maybe we figured once is enough.

This latest objects country of origin, if it was launched by a country has not been identified. Yea, of course the Chinese are going to act Butt Hurt, they got caught with their pants down. 

1 hour ago, Tatetopa said:

After all the hell raised last time, maybe Biden just didn't want Marjorie's constituents shooting up in the air at a balloon  8 miles high (could almost be a song) and having bullets falling down on their neighbors.

No, the reason this object was shot down was because it presented a threat to Civilian and Military Aviation. This object was small in comparison to the other object, it was the size of a Car, not two buses. I think In reality the Green and her constituents are more concerned about Jewish Space Lasers than balloons. The MAGA QANON Queen is just an ignorant and foolish individual and her constituents are just like here her a bunch of Ignorant fools. 

1 hour ago, Tatetopa said:

Just curious, do private citizens own any firearms capable of delivering a bullet 8 miles straight up?  Do people with common sense discharge firearms at targets they know are out of range?

Well, the answer is simple NO Civilian privately owned firearm will reach that altitude. Yes idiots do discharge weapons at targets they are unable to hit. This is because they don’t have enough knowledge to understand they are unable to hit targets. Let’s, face it all firearms have a maximum effective range, and while a skilled marksman can accurately hit targets beyond that range in most cases that range is only extended approximately 500 additional meters.

I own the most powerful Rifle civilians can own, without a spacial weapons permit Tate. I purchased a Barrett M82A1 50 Cal Semiautomatic Sniper Rifle in 1997 for my collection. It’s the best and most accurate Rifle I have ever owned. The maximum effective range is approximately 1500 meters, however, I have no problem hitting targets at 2000 meters with 99% accuracy of a first time hit. Tate, with this rifle I could not get close to the 8 mile altitude mark, hell it would be impossible to hit targets at the distance in a level firing position.

Peace Tate.

[Grim Reaper 6]

4 minutes ago, docyabut2 said:

We should shoot down any object in our air space, even aliens 

Especially Aliens, whether they are illegal or extraterrestrial Doxy, I certainly agree with you!

[+and-then]

46 minutes ago, docyabut2 said:

The free countries of the world should be afraid of what China is trying do on their balloons.  They might be planning over taking our countries by putting atomic bombs on the balloons  

I've seen a couple of pundits saying the balloon is a perfect platform for a small nuke-generated EMP.  It makes sense.  Once we get used to such overflights, it would be the perfect surprise punch.

Edited February 11, 2023 by and-then

[Hankenhunter]

59 minutes ago, DarkHunter said:

For the first question that is a yes and no.  The largest caliber that can legally owned before getting into destructive devices is 50 caliber and the 50 bmg round can only get up to about 10,000 to 15,000 feet at absolute best.  So the overwhelming majority of privately owned guns wouldn't be able to reach whatever was shot down.  But destructive devices are a thing and can be owned and something that fires a 20mm round might be able to reach whatever was shot down, larger rounds can almost certainly reach the required altitude, and there are definitely private citizens that own cannons that fire 20mm rounds and larger even if extremely rare.

As for the second question that is a yes, you would be surprised how bad people are at estimating distance and in knowing the capability of what they are shooting.  

I don't know much about them, but could model rockets be amiable at a target that high?

[+and-then]

39 minutes ago, susieice said:

They are going to retrieve this. The ocean is frozen so it won't be too difficult. We'll find out what it is. I don't know if you can reach that high with antiaircraft guns. They used jets for both.

I think the F-22's maximum ceiling is about 60-65 thousand feet so that would explain using it on the first one.  Other than a true reconnaissance aircraft like the old U-2 type, that's likely the max ceiling for any fighter we have today, and that altitude would require full thrust and a lot of fuel to maintain lift.

[DarkHunter]

12 minutes ago, Hankenhunter said:

I don't know much about them, but could model rockets be amiable at a target that high?

The bigger issue isnt aiming as it is the altitude that it can reach.  The vast majority of model rockets only have a maximum altitude of 1,500 feet or less.  Anything over 1,500 feet and you get into needing to notify the FAA of a launch.  

One could build an illegal rocket that can very easily reach 40,000 feet or higher, sugar itself is half of a surprisingly decent solid rocket fuel.  Assuming one builds or acquires a rocket that can hit whatever was flying at approximately 40,000 feet actually doing so would be challenging.  Just firing the rocket without any way to steer or guide it will require a lot of information and calculations that need to be extremely precise along with a good bit of luck to hit the object but it can be done.  Having a way to guide or steer it makes hitting the object easier but putting that on a rocket adds a massive amount of complexity that technical skill that few groups have let alone a singular individual.

[lightly]

2 hours ago, Grim Reaper 6 said:

No such virus exists, but that very funny anyway thanks for the laugh

Your welcome     But, according to this.. it’s not clear whether genetically specific bio weapons are not possible.  ?

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_bioweapon

[Hankenhunter]

1 hour ago, DarkHunter said:

The bigger issue isnt aiming as it is the altitude that it can reach.  The vast majority of model rockets only have a maximum altitude of 1,500 feet or less.  Anything over 1,500 feet and you get into needing to notify the FAA of a launch.  

One could build an illegal rocket that can very easily reach 40,000 feet or higher, sugar itself is half of a surprisingly decent solid rocket fuel.  Assuming one builds or acquires a rocket that can hit whatever was flying at approximately 40,000 feet actually doing so would be challenging.  Just firing the rocket without any way to steer or guide it will require a lot of information and calculations that need to be extremely precise along with a good bit of luck to hit the object but it can be done.  Having a way to guide or steer it makes hitting the object easier but putting that on a rocket adds a massive amount of complexity that technical skill that few groups have let alone a singular individual.

Thanks. I wasn't sure because I remember watching the tube, and seeing some humongous model rockets being launched in some desert somewhere. Some were over 7 feet long. It was a club thing, so I'm assuming they had permission.