Local aerospace expert provides insight after mysterious balloons baffle people
SACRAMENTO — When a Chinese spy balloon floated across the U.S. earlier this month, it sparked a wide range of reactions from security fears to intrigue.
"I think people don't know this is going on. The sky is full of balloons," John Powell said. "And suddenly people found out that there are balloons overhead and it became a concern and it's been going on thousands and thousands of times every day going back 90 years."
Powell — also known as "the crazy balloon guy" in the space community — is president of JP Aerospace in Rancho Cordova. They've flown two hundred missions, from rockets to airships to chairs in space.
Powell said they are postponing some of their flights until everything surrounding the spy balloons starts to settle down. He's now playing it safe as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says China offered "no apology" Saturday in the first meeting since the balloon incident.
"This is, I would say, absurd and hysterical. This is 100% abuse of the use of force," Wang Yi, a Chinese senior diploma, said, through translation, at the meeting,
Powell worries security concerns and now talks of more regulation will deflate future flights.
"[The Chinese spy balloon] did fly over Montana where there are nuclear missile silos, but it was hundreds of miles away from those silos," he said. "So if it was a spy balloon, it was a bad spy balloon."
Powell said the concern from the general population over something unknown flying above is why there are protocols and paperwork to file before you can launch one of those balloons.
He worries there's a lot of science now at risk with the balloons providing education, weather data and climate information.