Does the United States have the right to drop the Chinese “espionage” balloon?

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The answerAndre Lucci:

The answer to this question lies in the definition of air law and Karman line, at an altitude of 100 km. that it this is the address That officially separates Earth’s atmosphere from space, according to the International Aeronautical Federation (FAI).

When an aircraft circles below 100 kilometers of altitude (about 62 miles), there is use of the primary country’s airspace. When this flight is the opposite of that above This line is from KarmanThere is no legal use of the airspace. So if the passage is not expressly authorized over a particular country, there is a violation of the airspace below the Karmann Line. But there is no violation of this space above this line.

This rule comes from a practical case. In 1965, a manned capsule appeared Gemini program NASA, for reasons of flight duration, had to pass over Communist China several times. The US charge d’affaires informed Chinese officials about this upcoming overflight, which China fully accepted. Therefore, the Karman line rule is derived from this case law. Therefore, flying over the Karmann Line is completely legal.

in Earth’s atmospherethe most technically advanced commercial airliners can’t outrun 30,000 or 40,000 feet (between approximately 9,100 and 12,200 meters) at best: lack of elevator and absence oxidizer atmosphere, etc. stratospheric balloons or weather balloons just reach Very painful at 42,000 metres. Much lower than the Karmann line. For their part, satellites, on the contrary, cannot fly less than 120-150 kilometers due to atmospheric braking. So they are Always above the Karmann line.

spotted for a few days over the territory of the United States It was then shot down by the USAF in early February off South Carolina, so the Chinese “spy” balloon could technically not have flown beyond the Karman Line. By flying over the United States without permission, he was thus in a typical position to violate US airspace. Since this balloon was unmanned, there was no impediment, neither legal nor ethical, to drop it.