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Agent_Angelo_Pappas t1_j8a6pts wrote

If you look at the Pentagon’s statement they didn’t actually make any comparisons to satellites like that

Obviously a balloon presents much different monitoring opportunities than a satellite. A satellite would be 200+ miles up and have only a brief window to observe a target because it’s moving 15,000+ mph relative to the ground to maintain orbit

Being able to float 10 miles over a target for hours or days is a much different situation than a satellite. The takeaway I had from the DOD was that nothing on board was new, it was similar optics/sensing/communication equipment as what goes on spy planes operating around the same altitude

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