Did a Chinese spy balloon make multiple passes in figure-eight patterns over U.S. military sites?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back on February 13, 2023 I blogged about Government and media storytelling about a Chinese spy balloon that drifted over the United States. On April 3, 2023 there is an article by NBC News titled Chinese spy balloon gathered intelligence from sensitive U.S. military sites, despite U.S. efforts to block it which contains the following claim:

 

“China was able to control the balloon so it could make multiple passes over some of the sites (at times flying figure-eight formations) and transmit the information it collected back to Beijing in real time, the three officials said.”

 

Information from that article was repeated by newspapers like the New York Post in another article that same day titled Chinese spy balloon gathered intelligence from US military sites: report:

 

“The device — which was shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4, seven days after it first entered US airspace — made multiple passes over some key installations, at times flying in a figure-eight to ensure maximum data collection, according to NBC News, which cited two current senior US officials and one former White House official.”

 

They didn’t supply details, like which installations, or show any close-up views of those paths taken. A circle (shown clockwise above) is reasonable. As soon as you draw a picture of it, a figure-eight (going first clockwise, and then counterclockwise) seems a hard to believe fairy-tale. Even a plane would prefer a simple circle to the more complex figure-eight.

 

There is an earlier article by Adam Kehoe at TheDrive on May 17, 2021 titled What we know about the high-altitude balloons recently lingering off America’s coastlines which described how some American balloons work:

 

“Within the main balloon, there is a smaller balloon referred to as a ‘ballonet.’ The ballonet acts as a ballast, and functions as the central component of the steering system. Air is introduced into the ballonet using a pump, permitting the balloon to modify its weight to ascend or descend. Operators cannot directly control the course or speed, but the altitude changes, along with real-time weather awareness, allow the balloon to leverage wind patterns at different altitudes in order to navigate, including staying in a particular area for a long period of time.”