Tactical balloons? Surveillance, or what?

M

MFE

Pre-takeoff checklist
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MFE
My son spotted three balloons on FlightRadar24 operating out of the ABQ area flying interesting patterns. They're N877TH, N878TH, and N879TH. Looking them up, they're operated by Aerostar Aerospace out of South Dakota. The video on their page mentions monitoring "contested areas." Look up their flight paths, are they practicing, or what? https://aerostar.com/products/balloons-airships
 
MFE said:
My son spotted three balloons on FlightRadar24 operating out of the ABQ area flying interesting patterns. They're N877TH, N878TH, and N879TH. Looking them up, they're operated by Aerostar Aerospace out of South Dakota. The video on their page mentions monitoring "contested areas." Look up their flight paths, are they practicing, or what? https://aerostar.com/products/balloons-airships
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I don't have the patience to watch the video, but is this not some sort of border area reconnaissance? There are NOTAM'd aerostats all across the southern US for this reason.
 
Aerostar has also had contracts with companies like Google doing research on providing broadband Internet to rural areas, etc. Lots of uses of high altitude balloons.
 
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