Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 Posted February 13, 2023 Share Posted February 13, 2023 I am of the opinion that much of this is media generated hoopla - remember Y2K? True, the large one of last week may have been a spy craft. Heck, they may have all been spy craft. But keep in mind that, there are a lot of balloons of all sizes launched all the time: "Twice a day, every day of the year, weather balloons are released simultaneously from almost 900 locations worldwide! This includes 92 released by the National Weather Service in the US and its territories. The balloon flights last for around 2 hours, can drift as far as 125 miles away, and rise up to over 100,000 ft/ (about 20 miles) in the atmosphere!" Now, these are generally smaller balloons - with a small "payload" - but there are many, many others.... Wiki article "Uncrewed high-altitude balloons are used as research balloons, for educational purposes, and by hobbyists. Common uses include meteorology, atmospheric and climate research, collection of imagery from near space, amateur radio applications, and submillimeter astronomy." Check out this article from over three years ago: Giant Surveillance Balloons Are Lurking At the Edge of Space This ain't nothin' new ~ but it sure gives a bunch of politicians and the media ("if it smells, it sells!") something to squawk about. Oh... and here's another fun story: When a Canadian Weather Balloon Went Rogue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michigan Slim Posted February 13, 2023 Share Posted February 13, 2023 I found the remains and electronics from a weather balloon at the farm once. Just happened to have Scout Troop 430 up there with me. It had an ID number to go online and report. We mailed it back in. I forget the particulars but it travelled a long way to get where it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Riot Posted February 13, 2023 Share Posted February 13, 2023 I can see it now… (queue wavy lines as seen on Gilligan’s Island) Congress mandates a new department to be formed. The department, utilizing sections of the FAA, NOAA and the USAF, would track and regulate “lighter than air unpowered vehicles”. The formation of this new department would be quite challenging due to the need to bring elements of the Dept of Defense (USAF), the Dept of Transportation (FAA) and the Dept of Commerce (NOAA) together. Once formed and utilizing the various talents and resources of these federal entities the new regulatory agency would become a stand alone entity within the government. This agency would be called the Atmospheric Investigative and Regulatory High Earth Aeronautics Department, AIRHEAD for short. The officers and employees of this new agency would be affectionately known as “Airheads”. Our country and the countries of our allies would be much safer and much better off with such a wonderful group of Airheads to help protect us! God Bless America! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michigan Slim Posted February 13, 2023 Share Posted February 13, 2023 Pat, I think we should make your post a sticky so we can refer back on it when that really happen. You may be a visionary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Riot Posted February 13, 2023 Share Posted February 13, 2023 Tried to post an article. Couldn’t. Never mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rip Snorter Posted February 13, 2023 Share Posted February 13, 2023 Had one of these weather balloons come down in a neighborhood tree back in the late '50's. The fire department came and got the payload out of the tree. If I recall, the Airforce sent someone to get it. Wasn't much bigger than a breadbox, but great excitement among all us kids! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dubious Don #56333 Posted February 13, 2023 Share Posted February 13, 2023 3 hours ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said: I can see it now… (queue wavy lines as seen on Gilligan’s Island) Congress mandates a new department to be formed. The department, utilizing sections of the FAA, NOAA and the USAF, would track and regulate “lighter than air unpowered vehicles”. The formation of this new department would be quite challenging due to the need to bring elements of the Dept of Defense (USAF), the Dept of Transportation (FAA) and the Dept of Commerce (NOAA) together. Once formed and utilizing the various talents and resources of these federal entities the new regulatory agency would become a stand alone entity within the government. This agency would be called the Atmospheric Investigative and Regulatory High Earth Aeronautics Department, AIRHEAD for short. The officers and employees of this new agency would be affectionately known as “Airheads”. Our country and the countries of our allies would be much safer and much better off with such a wonderful group of Airheads to help protect us! God Bless America! ROTFLMAO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watab kid Posted February 13, 2023 Share Posted February 13, 2023 finally getting a WH Q&A briefing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trailrider #896 Posted February 13, 2023 Share Posted February 13, 2023 5 hours ago, Rip Snorter said: Had one of these weather balloons come down in a neighborhood tree back in the late '50's. The fire department came and got the payload out of the tree. If I recall, the Airforce sent someone to get it. Wasn't much bigger than a breadbox, but great excitement among all us kids! Just what are the specs for the average-sized breadbox? In addition to protesting to China, have we lodged a complaint with the Federation? Maybe the Vulcan embassy? Ya know...I wonder if China is sending these over so USAF can shoot them down with AIM-9X missiles at how much a copy for the missiles? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forty Rod SASS 3935 Posted February 13, 2023 Share Posted February 13, 2023 Where is our brand spanking new Space Patrol Force. Isn't this supposed to be one of their functions? What are they supposed to do, anyway? (Space Patrol was a 1950 TV series for kids that would love to find copies of.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Riot Posted February 13, 2023 Share Posted February 13, 2023 27 minutes ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said: Where is our brand spanking new Space Patrol Force. Isn't this supposed to be one of their functions? What are they supposed to do, anyway? (Space Patrol was a 1950 TV series for kids that would love to find copies of.) Amazon has it on Blu-Ray and DVD. $25 & $100 respectively. Space Patrol: The Complete Series [Blu-ray] https://a.co/d/1rD3mrV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trailrider #896 Posted February 13, 2023 Share Posted February 13, 2023 Sorry, Space Force deals with stuff beyond the Karman line (50 miles above the Earth's surface). In the future...budgetary considerations applicable...SF is going to have enough problems with China, as it is! At least for the moment, the Pentagon has ruled out extra-terrestrial sources...for the moment! Wonder how they are explaining the incidents over Malmstrom's Echo-Flight, 16 March 1966, that shut down the Minuteman I guidance systems on all 10 birds in the flight (each of the 10 LF's are miles apart). I was out with my maintenance team at one of the Echo LF's the following night, and brought the bird up to Strategic Alert (green light on the launch officers' panel in the control center, miles away) with no problems. Driving back to the base some hours later, we were called on the radio and asked if we had seen anything in Belt Canyon, as we drove up Belt Hill, where a civilian and a sheriff's deputy had seen some sort of light, but we hadn't seen anything. I will state uneqivically that I have NEVER seen a UFO/UAP, so I remain aqnostic on the subject. A few days later some of the birds in Oscar-flight to the East of Echo went down when a "light" was seen over one! The latter incident caused one of the young site security guards topside at Oscar-1 (the Launch Control Facility enough anxiety to attempt to scale the chainlink fence, and sustained minor injuries in the process. What I wonder/worry about is whether China is now releasing a bunch of unsophisticated balloons to make us cry "wolf" and get a false sense of security by shooting them down, prior to sending something really significant over! I do think it was a correct call on the first one, tracking it with U-2's, and then shooting it down where recovery was easier than had they done it over Alaska. Whatever intel the first balloon got over Malmstrom, Warren, etc., it wasn't the location of the missiles (Launch Facilities) and control centers (Missile Alert Facilities as they are now called). The locations have been common knowledge since the '60's, and, before the discontinuance of the Open Skies agreement, the Russkies were able to periodically send somebody to inspect them! We could do likewise to their fixed sites. BTW, the Pentagon is saying not to worry about "aliens". Maybe it would be more prudent to worry about the aliens coming across out southern border en masse, on the ground! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Sopris, SASS Regulator Posted February 13, 2023 Share Posted February 13, 2023 I think I see a stage in the works for a SASS shoot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watab kid Posted February 13, 2023 Share Posted February 13, 2023 yup , after multiple breifings and no presidential statement we now have some saying it might be extra terrestrials and others saying thats absurd , so ...in my mind we have now been fed a confusing bunch of BS that dont mean CHIT in the real picture of what we are waiting on our president to explain , thank you very much BIG GOVERNMENT i dont trust you at all , and if you think you have me confused - kiss my red neck A$$ , you have me angry at this point Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kloehr Posted February 13, 2023 Share Posted February 13, 2023 24 minutes ago, Kid Sopris, SASS Regulator said: I think I see a stage in the works for a SASS shoot. Edit or start over anyone... 10. 10. 4+ Targets must be balloons Balloons must be made in China "You have been deputized by Sheriff Numb Nuts. He tells you the 4 Nerrs have been scaring the sheep with a bunch of floaty things. Happy sheep do not bleat. Make the sheep happy again. Largest balloon first, then shooters choice on target order, rifle not last All shotgun targets must go down From the first shot, each additional shot must be perceptibly sooner than the previous shot (repeat for each firearm); slowing down is a P At the beep, crack a fortune cookie and read the fortune out loud; add the words "between the Sheep" to the end of the fortune. The line: "I see you hanging over that there water" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watab kid Posted February 14, 2023 Share Posted February 14, 2023 im in but they gotta be close and big like we are "used to" ...............just sayin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blind Squirrel Posted February 14, 2023 Share Posted February 14, 2023 23 hours ago, Michigan Slim said: Pat, I think we should make your post a sticky so we can refer back on it when that really happen. You may be a visionary. Notice now that the news is reporting on all of the UFOs how everyone has stopped talking about all of the classified documents that are being found in politicians homes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Duncan Posted February 14, 2023 Share Posted February 14, 2023 Remember when elementary schools would release small balloons with "Let us know where found" notes attached for their science class? Then someone(s) decide ALL of those balloon carcass were detrimental to Mother Earth. But it's OK for government agency's to pollute the earth with thousands more of larger balloon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forty Rod SASS 3935 Posted February 14, 2023 Share Posted February 14, 2023 16 hours ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said: Amazon has it on Blu-Ray and DVD. $25 & $100 respectively. Space Patrol: The Complete Series [Blu-ray] https://a.co/d/1rD3mrV Thanks, Pat. Now they only have three copies left. Now I can watch Buzz Corey, Commander and Chief of the SPAAAAAAACE PATROL! and pretend to be 10 years old again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michigan Slim Posted February 14, 2023 Share Posted February 14, 2023 31 minutes ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said: Thanks, Pat. Now they only have three copies left. Now I can watch Buzz Corey, Commander and Chief of the SPAAAAAAACE PATROL! and pretend to be 10 years old again. Ask my wife..... I can't help but act 10 years old sometimes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Riot Posted February 14, 2023 Share Posted February 14, 2023 38 minutes ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said: Thanks, Pat. Now they only have three copies left. Now I can watch Buzz Corey, Commander and Chief of the SPAAAAAAACE PATROL! and pretend to be 10 years old again. Glad I could help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trailrider #896 Posted February 14, 2023 Share Posted February 14, 2023 The news media and even some senators like the Honorable Senator John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) keep asking why the WH isn't releasing more data, especially about the smaller three or four balloons shot down since the initial big one. What is the WH hiding? Why doesn't the president talk about it? As I have explained, I have no briefs about the present administration, but here is some food for thought: It could be that we really don't know anything about the last ones shot down, and haven't recovered enough of the first, big one. But it just might be that we don't want the Chinese or whoever to know what we know about these systems. During WWII, Britain had cracked the German Enigma codes. As a result, they knew that the Luftwaffe was about to bomb Coventry, which was heavily populated. The Brits could have warned Coventry to evacuate. Had they done so, the Germans would have figured out how they knew and would have changed their code. Prime Minister Winston Churchill elected not to inform Coventry, and the bombing caused a lot of casualties. But Britain continued "reading the other fellow's mail"! Sometimes a part of intel is released, but not everything, so the other side doesn't know for sure what we have found out. Everyone "knows", for example, that the Glomar Explorer failed to recover a lot of the Soviet Golf II K-129...right? Or did it? Where did they get the six Russian sailor's bodies to give a military funeral at sea? Hmmm? As far as shooting down the last three or four whatevers, if they were are such low altitudes as to present a hazard to commercial aircraft (imagine what could happen to a jet airliner that hit one), shooting them down makes perfect sense! Otherwise, maybe we will be told something, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but...or NOT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 Posted February 14, 2023 Author Share Posted February 14, 2023 I'm wonderin' what it cost to shoot down a $200 balloon.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trailrider #896 Posted February 15, 2023 Share Posted February 15, 2023 About $480,000 for the AIM-9X, plus fuel and maintenance for the aircraft. I bet if China can't do anything else, they can try to bankrupt us just using balloons! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted February 15, 2023 Share Posted February 15, 2023 9 hours ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said: I'm wonderin' what it cost to shoot down a $200 balloon.... 2 hours ago, Trailrider #896 said: About $480,000 for the AIM-9X, plus fuel and maintenance for the aircraft. I bet if China can't do anything else, they can try to bankrupt us just using balloons! I would hazard a guess that $1 million is well within the ball park. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watab kid Posted February 15, 2023 Share Posted February 15, 2023 back to the OP , we get all these balloons launched every day - where do the go? where do they end up ?? why are we poluting the globe with these and not straws ? so im off the deep end here but really , those that take our straws away condone this ? im OK im just tierd of the biden admin , the FBI and all this BS around the balloons when they are taking our gas stoves , our gas vehicles , our power plants , and flying around in their private jets and driving their armored vehicles to do it ....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 Posted February 15, 2023 Share Posted February 15, 2023 On 2/13/2023 at 2:16 AM, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said: I am of the opinion that much of this is media generated hoopla - remember Y2K? Hey, Y2K was a really big deal in the database world we started looking for and fixing problems, running simulations, around ‘95. On the millennium everyone in Oracle was on standby from midnight New Zealand time for another 36 hours. A collective sigh of relief was after midnight in Australia passed without a hiccup. I could bore you with the reasons but I won’t. there was a reason that there were no space shuttles in orbit on New Year’s Eve and it had nothing to do with partying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocWard Posted February 18, 2023 Share Posted February 18, 2023 @Pat Riot, SASS #13748 That was brilliant! Now, on subject:https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/aircraft-propulsion/hobby-clubs-missing-balloon-feared-shot-down-usaf?fbclid=IwAR0diVqnOaridojeCIrmUp1cfA0CqkDPQS9BKZn1eWGX5nosAQbx4KTKBas Quote A small, globe-trotting balloon declared “missing in action” by an Illinois-based hobbyist club on Feb. 15 has emerged as a candidate to explain one of the three mystery objects shot down by four heat-seeking missiles launched by U.S. Air Force fighters since Feb. 10. The club—the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB)—is not pointing fingers yet. But the circumstantial evidence is at least intriguing. The club’s silver-coated, party-style, “pico balloon” reported its last position on Feb. 10 at 38,910 ft. off the west coast of Alaska, and a popular forecasting tool—the HYSPLIT model provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—projected the cylindrically shaped object would be floating high over the central part of the Yukon Territory on Feb. 11. That is the same day a Lockheed Martin F-22 shot down an unidentified object of a similar description and altitude in the same general area. There are suspicions among other prominent members of the small, pico-ballooning enthusiasts’ community, which combines ham radio and high-altitude ballooning into a single, relatively affordable hobby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earl Brasse, SASS #3562 Posted February 18, 2023 Share Posted February 18, 2023 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORNERY OAF Posted February 19, 2023 Share Posted February 19, 2023 I can't believe the American public, after all that has happened, is still so dam dumb to buy a distraction completely hook line and sinker...president get popped with classified materials, may now involve family, pedafile list coming out....wait, of my goodness, look at the balloons !!!! Wow, Chinese balloons, wowowow...look! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cypress Sun Posted February 19, 2023 Share Posted February 19, 2023 43 minutes ago, ORNERY OAF said: I can't believe the American public, after all that has happened, is still so dam dumb to buy a distraction completely hook line and sinker...president get popped with classified materials, may now involve family, pedafile list coming out....wait, of my goodness, look at the balloons !!!! Wow, Chinese balloons, wowowow...look! BUT WAIT...THERE'S MORE... https://www.foxnews.com/tech/creepy-chinese-drone-swims-underwater-flies-air Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PowderRiverCowboy Posted February 19, 2023 Share Posted February 19, 2023 On 2/13/2023 at 12:16 AM, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said: I am of the opinion that much of this is media generated Distraction - remember Y2K? True, the large one of last week may have been a spy craft. Heck, they may have all been spy craft. But keep in mind that, there are a lot of balloons of all sized launched all the time: "Twice a day, every day of the year, weather balloons are released simultaneously from almost 900 locations worldwide! This includes 92 released by the National Weather Service in the US and its territories. The balloon flights last for around 2 hours, can drift as far as 125 miles away, and rise up to over 100,000 ft/ (about 20 miles) in the atmosphere!" Now, these are generally smaller balloons - with a small "payload" - but there are many, many others.... When a Canadian Weather Balloon Went Rogue] Fixed it for you sir Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 Posted April 4, 2023 Author Share Posted April 4, 2023 On 2/13/2023 at 12:39 PM, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said: Where is our brand spanking new Space Patrol Force. Isn't this supposed to be one of their functions? What are they supposed to do, anyway? (Space Patrol was a 1950 TV series for kids that would love to find copies of.) On 2/13/2023 at 1:09 PM, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said: Amazon has it on Blu-Ray and DVD. $25 & $100 respectively. Space Patrol: The Complete Series [Blu-ray] https://a.co/d/1rD3mrV Or you can watch 'em on the Tube of You for free.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Riot Posted April 4, 2023 Share Posted April 4, 2023 6 hours ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said: Or you can watch 'em on the Tube of You for free.... Do you think if I sent 25¢ to the address below I could get me some Space Binoculars to keep an eye out for balloons? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 Posted April 4, 2023 Author Share Posted April 4, 2023 1 hour ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said: Do you think if I sent 25¢ to the address below I could get me some Space Binoculars to keep an eye out for balloons? Dangit, I be plumb proud of you, Laddie, for stickin' through the whole episode to the closing commercial! But let's hope not... them "Space B'nockers" would prob'ly leave ya cross-eyed.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.