A Feb. 3 Instagram post (direct link, archived link) shows a screenshot of a tweet that references the Chinese spy balloon spotted floating across the U.S. in early February.
“Whoops. US Gov just let slip that satellites are actually just balloons,” reads the text in the tweet.
The tweet directs social media users to an NBC article with the headline, “Suspected Chinese spy balloon found over northern U.S.”
The Instagram post has been liked more than 1,000 times in four days.
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None of the U.S. military and government officials in the NBC article gave any statement “admitting” that satellites are balloons. Some balloon satellites can be defined as balloons, but satellites do exist in space and are not all balloons. This claim is an offshoot of the long-debunked flat Earth theory.
Approximately 20 balloon satellites have been launched into space over the past 50 years, according to Dean Hirasawa, a spokesperson for the Satellite Industry Association. But the existence of balloon satellites does not negate the existence of other Earth-orbiting satellites, he said.
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