The Balloon
On January 28, 2023, a Chinese high-altitude balloon, roughly 200 feet tall with a payload the size of a regional jet, entered U.S. airspace over Alaska and drifted across Canada and the continental United States for a week, photographed by the public over Montana and the Carolinas while officials debated what to do. On February 4 an F-22 shot it down with a Sidewinder missile off South Carolina, and the Navy recovered the wreckage. China said it was a civilian weather balloon blown off course; the Pentagon said it carried surveillance equipment.
Three More Objects
Over the following eight days fighters shot down three more objects: one over Alaska on February 10, one over the Yukon on February 11 by a U.S. F-22 under NORAD, and one over Lake Huron on February 12, the last after a first missile missed. Officials described them as small, slow, and not clearly propelled, and for a week the White House was asked daily whether they were extraterrestrial. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said there was no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity.
What They Were
None of the three was recovered. The best evidence points to hobby balloons: the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade reported that its small pico balloon, a $12 amateur radio balloon that had circled the world, went missing over the Yukon at the time and place of the second shootdown. President Biden said the intelligence community's assessment was that the objects were most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation, or research. The surge in detections had a prosaic cause: after the Chinese balloon, NORAD adjusted radar filters that had been tuned to ignore slow, small objects, and the sky filled with things that had always been there.
What It Changed
The episode made "unidentified" a front-page word again and gave the new All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office a live case study. It also showed the shape of most UAP resolution: the truly unknown objects were balloons, the surveillance threat was real and identified, and the public briefly saw how much routine clutter military radar is designed to ignore. For what people mean when they report small round lights, see UFO orbs.
Frequently asked questions
What were the objects shot down over the U.S. in February 2023?
A Chinese surveillance balloon, downed off South Carolina on February 4, and three smaller unidentified objects over Alaska, the Yukon, and Lake Huron on February 10–12, assessed as most likely private, recreational, or research balloons. None of the three was recovered.
Were the 2023 unidentified objects aliens?
No. The White House said there was no indication of extraterrestrial activity, and the surge in detections followed NORAD loosening radar filters after the Chinese balloon. A hobby club's missing pico balloon matched the Yukon shootdown.