Thursday, February 16, 2023

Those Balloons

 It seems that one of the balloons shot down last week may have been launched from a hobby club  in Illinois.  I shit you not.

UFO Shot Down Over Canada Probably Belonged To Hobby Group From Illinois

They are a hobby group.  They launch little $12 balloons.   Put a tracking device in them, then track them as they fly, It's something to do on the weekend.

The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade spoke with Aviation Week, which says the circumstantial evidence is strong that it was their balloon shot down by NORAD, a partnership between the U.S. and Canada to monitor the skies that’s perhaps most famous for tracking Santa Claus. The U.S. was on heightened alert at the time, after a Chinese spy balloon was spotted by civilians in Billings, Montana before it crossed the entire continental U.S. and was finally shot down over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4.

Heh.  NORAD spent $400K to shoot down a club balloon.  Oops.  Much more at the link.

3 comments:

juvat said...

Way to Go, Joe!

Anonymous said...

The missile was $400k, but the plane costs, the trackers time, wrc probably put it over $1 million, as much as the military wastes, more likely $2 million!

Termite said...

F-16: $64 million.
Sidewinder missile: $400,000 each.

Shooting down a hobby weather club's $150 balloon & instruments: PRICELESS.