It’s a bird, it’s a plane… it’s a Chinese spy balloon?
Jackson Gosnell, Staff Writer
The Chinese spy balloon made its way over North Greenville University’s campus shortly before being shot down off the South Carolina coast.
The Balloon was first spotted days earlier along the West Coast of the United States. President Joe Biden wanted to shoot it down at that time however, military officials warned that falling debris could cause harm to those on the ground.
China confirmed that the balloon belonged to their country but said it was just a civilian weather project that went off track. The United States didn’t believe that story and now believes that the balloon may have gathered intelligence on U.S. military installations.
The balloon was believed to be controlled by China, meaning they could maneuver the balloon and fly it over wherever they wanted. The story made headlines for days and some NGU students said they couldn’t believe it came so close to home.
Saturday February 4, in the morning, NGU students said they heard chatter on social media and in the news about the ballon possibly being nearby. When they looked up in the sky, they saw it with their own eyes. It was surreal to many students when they first laid eyes on the mysterious object in the sky.
Wyatt Hart, freshman, said it was a real shock seeing the ballon in the sky right over him. “Look that’s awesome,” he said. Hart also said he and all of his friends had a similar reaction when they saw the balloon.
Hart mentioned that he was not too concerned that the balloon made it all the way across the United States but did think it should be shot down, “I knew we’d shoot it down eventually,” he said. Hart thought it was an event he will remember forever. “I will always remember it, it was just a really cool thing to happen, probably once in a lifetime,” he said.
Other students on campus said they were more concerned about the ballon and potential risks to our national security. “At this point, China probably knows too much about America because they waited so long to shoot it down,” said freshman Emma Zeager.
Reporting just this week from various outlets suggests that the spy balloon picked up communications from the U.S. government and potentially transmitted that information back to China using high-powered antennas and state-of-the-art technology.
Several members of congress said they were concerned about our nation’s response and believe we should have a plan in place if something like this happens in the future. There is also growing bipartisan support on capital hill for an investigation into the balloon to learn exactly what it was doing over the United States.
After the balloon was shot down, the U.S. government quickly recovered the balloon from the ocean just off the coast of South Carolina. The debris is still being analyzed to determine exactly what intelligence was picked up by the spy balloon.
It is worth noting that there have been numerous reports about unidentified high-altitude objects since the Chinese spy balloon was shot down.
There have also been several objects shot down by the U.S. since, but none were called sky balloons. It now begs the question if all of these high-altitude objects are somehow connected. “I wonder if it’s all connected or not with the balloon,” Hart said.
Still, so many questions remain about the balloon like what was its purpose, and why did it take the path that it did? Those questions can only be answered with time but in the meantime, NGU students say they’ll keep looking up.
