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paranoiamachine t1_j732v68 wrote

Reply to comment by aggasalk in How could a high-altitude surveillance balloon be captured? by aggasalk

Wow. Do we know approximately big it is, then? It's gotta be huge to be as visible as it is from that height.

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CompetitiveYou2034 t1_j73wyop wrote

The balloon part must be large, to reliably stay aloft for a ten thousand mile (?) voyage, and haul say 100 lbs (?) payload.

We only care about the spy payload, which might be quite small.

Very sure the US Air Force is closely examining this, and has a sense of it's actual size.

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unskilledplay t1_j74dmod wrote

ISS has an end-to-end width of about a football field orbits at 1.2M feet hight, 20 times further away than this balloon. Yet anyone can take a photo of it from their own back yard.

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