Meteorologists are launching fewer weather balloons across the United States as the National Weather Service loses staff.

In recent years, China has breached U.S. airspace with balloons on at least five separate occasions, said officials. U.S. radars have been recalibrated to look for slow-moving balloon-like objects.

A U.S. official told CBS News on Friday that the balloon was "not moving very fast." Canada's Department of National Defence (DND) said in a statement late Thursday that the balloon had been ...

on the way to Camp David. Downing the large, slow-moving balloon over the ocean reduced the risk of falling debris causing damage or casualties, a concern that military commanders had earlier in ...

Not so, with slow-moving balloons in the stratosphere, Williams says. “They are not warm, typically. They kind of assume the temperature of the surrounding air for the most part; they don’t ...

"While weather balloons can drift as far as 180 miles ... it is harder for the radar to spot. "Something slow moving that has very little metal in it will pop up on a regular radar as just ...

The official flatly rejected China’s assertion that the airship moving over the United States was a weather balloon blown off course. “This is false,” the official said. “This was a PRC ...

"We're informed through our national guard," Gianforte said. "We knew nothing about this until this slow moving balloon was hundreds of miles into the state. It had already flown over military ...

U.S. officials later admitted that the three later objects shot down likely had a "benign purpose" and were detected after the U.S. military set its radar system to detect slow-moving balloons.

They are often set to avoid picking up things moving slowly, like balloons sent aloft to help predict weather patterns. Elsewhere, Moldova briefly closed its airspace because of a presumed air ...

The spy balloon was allowed to fly over at least six sensitive military sites from Montana to South Carolina. Associated Press A slow-moving balloon is ideal for detailed mapping of a target and ...

Either way, the slow-moving balloon-like contraptions have captivated the country and become political fodder. First, there was the Chinese balloon that was initially spotted over Montana.