Only if there were cloud cover above 61k feet and not below 59k feet. There are instruments on LEO/MEO satellites capable of way more than just imagery. I hope we were monitoring the RF transmissions that were leaving that balloon. Surely we were. It taking pictures isn’t my worry.
Could they have shot it down for violating US Airspace over the Aleutian Islands which is mostly part of Alaska? That would have been “safe”.
Some of you guys really need to stop looking at everything through a political lens.
This assumes the equipment on a balloon is the same as on a satellite.
Clearly our leaders were scared. There was no way of knowing what was inside.
With all due respect you're clueless. You have no idea what capabilities we have.
With all due respect it’s pretty sad a friggen weather balloon was a crisis.
Exactly. But thinking the US military failed to detect a "spy balloon" and that it was allowed to float unchallenged while collecting valuable intel is completely asinine. Same as believing China would guarantee nuclear armageddon using a bioweapon in plain sight.
Maybe it didn't pose the threat you think it did? Maybe we knew where it came from, where it was going, what it was doing, and how to disable it before it got within 1000 miles. You and I have zero clue, but that won't stop you (and others) trying to score political points. And again, I love how the supposedly super pro-military folks will immediately chit all over our DoD as soon as they think they can make a political gain out of it. It's completely insulting to the people whose job it is to monitor and assess this stuff to say they all utterly failed in unison.
