Researchers watch and worry as balloons are blasted from the sky

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/21/ [login to see] /when-research-balloons-shot-down-scientists-worry
Angela Des Jardins never actually saw the alleged Chinese spy balloon when it made an appearance over Montana earlier this month.

"It was over Billings, which is a couple hours east of here," says Des Jardins, a physicist at Montana State University in Bozeman.

But she's seen plenty of others. Physics and engineering students at Montana State and all over the country use balloons for experiments and to test things they've built. Student teams from the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project, for example, have have big plans for doing research during next year's total solar eclipse.

In the past, student balloon launches have been festive affairs. But in a world where every balloon is a suspected foreign agent, what will people do when they see a white orb rising from a field?

"Are they going to bring a gun and try to shoot down the balloon?," she wonders.