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DeMalgamnated t1_j8ng2k5 wrote

wtf is with all the balloons all of a sudden? is every country aware of them and now making them public so they don't look incompetent and shoot them down?

seems to me like it's become political now. rather than "we care about our airspace"

"we didn't care about the balloons, till you made us care"

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Dangedoddle t1_j8nwysd wrote

I heard on the news yesterday that 1k weather balloons are released around the world everyday. Crazy it's that high, but now that everyone is sensitive to it, we are getting a lot more reports.

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KnottyBelayer t1_j8ouclw wrote

It’s 2k every day and they’re all weather balloons that self destruct after taking their measurements.

They launch 1k at 12 am UTC and 12 pm UTC

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Riptide360 t1_j8npeig wrote

I think China found a weak layer of airspace to exploit and that we only recently started tracking objects at that altitude (above planes, below satellites).

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Art-Zuron t1_j8qg0ww wrote

That's my guess. They were there the whole time but now that it's become a spectacle, everyone's decided to do it.

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