Spy balloons, UFOs, or scientific probes: what kind of objects are fixed in the sky in different countries

By tass.ru - February 18, 04:12

Content

• When and where was it first discovered?
• Where else have they been seen?
• Extraterrestrial is not excluded?
• Weather balloon scouts?
• Are balloons safe for aircraft?

The authorities of a number of countries - from Canada to Moldova - in recent weeks have reported the detection of unidentified objects in their airspace. The controversy began regarding their origin: someone talked about global espionage, someone about extraterrestrial civilizations.

Since the beginning of February, four such objects have been shot down over North America. The first of these turned out to be a Chinese balloon, but the affiliation of the rest is still unclear: according to US President Joe Biden, there is nothing to indicate that they were reconnaissance vehicles from abroad. TASS collected the main information about the situation.

1.When and where was it first discovered?

On the evening of January 28, in the sky over Alaska, the United States recorded an unidentified balloon, which soon turned out to be over the main territory of the country. The Air Force shot him down only on February 4, already over the Atlantic.

Biden said he had ordered the shooting down of the object on February 1, but the Pentagon warned of the danger that falling debris could pose. The United States named the object a Chinese reconnaissance balloon. The Chinese Foreign Ministry denied these allegations - according to its version, we are talking about a meteorological probe that lost control.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken canceled a planned visit to Beijing because of the incident and even, like Transportation Secretary Pete Buttejaj, allowed the imposition of sanctions against China. Beijing said that American balloons repeatedly violated Chinese airspace (the White House denied this), and urged Washington to think about its own actions.

2.Where else have they been seen?

The New York Times reported on a secret report to congressmen, according to which the United States was observed from the air at least twice in a year, not only with the help of reconnaissance balloons but also by drones. CNN sources in the US administration announced 20 flights of Chinese balloons over 5 continents. Later, a similar balloon flew through the airspace of Colombia, and Japan soon discovered the "Chinese balloon" in its sky.

On February 10, the White House announced the destruction of an unknown aircraft "the size of a small car" over Alaska that did not look like a balloon. The Pentagon clarified that they do not have information about the origin and capabilities of the object. Two more objects were shot down on February 11 and 12: one over northwestern Canada, the other over Lake Huron on the US-Canadian border, and in the latter case, the target was destroyed only the second time.

On the afternoon of February 14, Moldova closed its airspace due to an unidentified object. In neighboring Romania, fighter jets took to the air, but the pilots could not find the target. The next day, the Kyiv authorities announced an attempt to shoot down balloons, which, according to Ukraine, belonged to the Russian side (and one of them allegedly flew over Moldova). At the same time, the Ukrainian edition of Strana, citing a source in the national armed forces, wrote that Ukraine was the first to launch such objects toward Russia.

3.Extraterrestrial is not excluded?

The head of the North American Joint Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the US Northern Command, General Glen Van Herk, did not rule out at a briefing that one of the downed objects was of extraterrestrial origin. According to him, it is unclear why these unidentified objects fly at all, and at such low speeds.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre denied this version, emphasizing several times that "there is no sign of alien or extraterrestrial activity." Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, did not believe in the extraterrestrial origin of objects: according to him, aliens, most likely, do not exist at all.

Psychologist Elena Poyarkova, in an interview with TASS, linked the active discussion of versions about extraterrestrial UFOs with anxiety due to the tense situation in the world: "This is such anxiety that in a sense cannot be appeased, because it cannot be controlled in any way." “During perestroika [there were] great social cataclysms - they constantly talked about UFOs, it was a topic that everyone discussed,” the agency’s interlocutor noted.

Neither the United States nor Canada has exact information about the origin of three of the four objects shot down over North America: Biden suggested that these could be balloons from private companies or research institutions. Nevertheless, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has already linked these vehicles to Chinese and Russian intelligence, again justifying the need to rally the ranks of the alliance.

4.Weather balloon scouts?

During the Cold War, the United States used stratospheric balloons (balloons designed to fly in the stratosphere) to search for information about the nuclear programs of the USSR and China. These devices were equipped with cameras, equipment for searching for traces of radiation and seismic sensors. However, the program was curtailed by the end of the 1950s.

As Aleksey Leonkov, editor of Arsenal of the Fatherland, noted in an interview with TASS, it is irrational to use such probes for reconnaissance: “They fly at the behest of the wind. And if you want to get data on some object, you need the wind to pass exactly over this object This is not always the case."

Commenting on Kyiv’s statements, the expert suggested that balloons can simulate a drone raid in order to mislead the air defense system, but this is also “unprofitable”: anti-aircraft systems radars “have built-in speed limits for objects so as not to shoot, for example, at birds,” so it is unlikely that they will be fooled in this way.

5.Are balloons safe for aircraft?

Balloons pose no danger to aviation, Roman Gusarov, editor-in-chief of the Avia.ru portal, explained in an interview with TASS. “If we are talking about stratospheric balloons, then they fly above the echelons of aircraft, aviation does not fly there,” the expert noted.