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A comment on U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon. Parent comment

Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by humanizersequel on Saturday February 04, 2023 @08:27PM (#34660588)
>They can task commercial satellites and get as good or better imagery.

Is that true? Just from quickly poking around, LEO satellites seem to orbit at about triple the height, moving far faster than a balloon lazily floating along the jetstream. Probably can use a larger variety of instruments as well.

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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by SergeAx on Saturday February 04, 2023 @09:56PM (#34661276)
> about triple the height

Hundred times the height, to be exact.

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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by bagels on Saturday February 04, 2023 @09:58PM (#34661288)
LEO (300-1500km) is much higher than the apparent 60,000 ft altitude of this balloon (18km).
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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by humanizersequel on Sunday February 05, 2023 @01:56AM (#34662631)
I'm mildly embarrassed to say I didn't even notice the discrepancy in units. Obviously, 200,000 ft (or 300k, but 200 was the figure I saw first) isn't really plausibly high enough to constitute orbit.
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