Hobby club fears USAF shot down their missing balloon

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• The three unidentified objects recently shot down by the U.S. Air Force could be harmless pico balloons, hobbyists noted.
• A hobbyist club said that their “missing” balloon was predicted to be at the same altitude and area as the object shot down on Feb. 11.
• The pico-ballooning community expressed concern that the military could be shooting their balloons next.

A hobbyist club is expressing concern that its “missing” balloon, a circumnavigating pico balloon, may have been one of the three unidentified objects shot down by the U.S. Air Force since Feb. 10.

Pico-ballooning is a combination of ham radio and high-altitude ballooning. The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB), in particular, had a silver-coated, party-style, pico balloon that reported its last position at 38,910 ft. off the west coast of Alaska on Feb. 10. It was reported missing on Feb. 15.

The HYSPLIT forecasting tool, a model provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), predicted the balloon to float high above central Yukon Territory on Feb. 11 — the same day an unidentified object of a similar description and altitude was shot down in the area by a Lockheed Martin F-22.

Prominent members of the pico-ballooning community expressed concern that the Air Force may have shot down harmless balloons. Among them is Ron Meadows, the founder of Scientific Balloon Solutions (SBS), a Silicon Valley company that builds pico balloons for scientists, educators, and hobbyists.

Meadows said that he tried to contact the FBI and the military “to try to enlighten them on what a lot of these things probably are.” He added, “They’re going to look not too intelligent to be shooting them down.”

The three unidentified objects shot down on Feb. 10-12 match the shapes, payloads, and altitudes of small pico balloons, which are typically purchased for $12-180 each.

NSC spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Feb. 15 that the three objects “could just be balloons tied to some commercial or benign purpose.” He did not make any mention of pico balloons, however.

Common, round-shaped Mylar party balloons cannot ascend higher than 20,000-30,000 ft., while those more resilient materials, such as latex or foil, can reach above 43,000 ft. Such balloons typically carry an 11-gram tracker on a tether, as well as HF and VHF/UHF antennas to update their positions to ham radio receivers across the world.

Several dozen balloons can be aloft at any given time, and some can circle the globe several times before malfunctioning. These balloons are seldom recovered.

Following the discovery of the suspected Chinese spy balloon, the government has been wary of high-altitude objects. Lawmakers pointed out that objects at altitudes of 20,000-40,000 ft. posed dangers to civil aviation.

Kirby agreed that while the objects’ height were “considerably lower” than the Chinese balloon, they posed “a threat to civilian commercial air traffic.” He added that authorities could not rule out the possibility of the objects conducting potential surveillance.

Retired FedEx engineer Tom Medlin, who has three balloons traveling the Northern and Southern hemispheres, argued that the balloons weigh less than 6 lbs. and are therefore exempt from most FAA airspace restrictions.

Still, there are concerns among the pico-ballooning community that the U.S. military could shoot down their balloons next.

Medlin said that HYSPLIT projected one of his balloons to enter U.S. airspace on Feb. 17, and expressed hopes that “when that happens we’re not real trigger-happy and start shooting down everything.”

Source: Aviation Week