(OPINION) One may think that balloons are just an old-fashioned technology that stayed in the past in this world of drones and missiles and spacecraft – but the fact is they are still very much in use for a variety of usages.
We can, of course mention the famed Chinese spy baloons: Joe Biden Wanted to Apologize to Xi Jinping For Shooting Down Chinese Spy Balloon and Breaking: Canada Monitoring “Potential Second Incident” of Chinese Spy Balloons.
Russians also used them both defensively as reconnaissance and also offensively as spy craft: Here We Go… Ukraine Says Six Russian Spy Balloons Spotted Over Kiev – Shot Down by Air Force.
But balloons may have other dirtier usages: North Korea’s ‘Rocket Man’ Kim Jon Un Halts the ‘Excrement Balloon War’ Against South Korea.
Besides all that, there’s the more everyday usage of balloons as meteorological measurement craft, a king of airborne objects that were always confused with UFO’s ever since the 1950’s.
Now, in Colorado, the old mix-up of balloons and UFOs is reportedly still at play. New York Post reported:
“Residents in Denver reported sightings of a strange-looking balloon flying over the Mile High City, calling into KDVR, a local news channel, to report the mysterious sighting on Friday morning.
The station was able to locate the whitish-clear orb — which actually belongs to the space exploration and technology company World View Enterprises, and was launched in northern Arizona last Saturday to study solar radiation in the stratosphere.
‘This is a more sophisticated system that allows us to fly and navigate in the stratosphere for days, weeks and months at a time’, vice president of marketing and communications at World View, Phil Wocken, told the outlet.”
The balloon is said to be floating at 73,000 feet, which is an altitude over 30,000 feet above the commercial airspace.
