The Biden administration will not take any action against another mysterious balloon that flew over American soil over the weekend, a Defense Department spokesman told Politico.
The U.S. military started tracking balloon last week when it was flying at an altitude of 36,000 feet. After observing the balloon off Hawaii’s coast, officials determined “no action need be taken.”
A Defense Department spokesperson said the U.S. military and the Federal Aviation Authority first noticed the aerial object on April 28. It is unclear who is behind the mysterious balloon, but the spokesperson officials believe it is not controlled by “a foreign or adversarial actor.”
“Based on these observations, the Secretary of Defense concurred with the recommendation of his military commanders that no action need be taken against the balloon,” the spokesperson said, adding that the balloon was no longer in American airspace as of Monday evening.
Three U.S. officials told NBC News, which first reported on the balloon, that the object did not fly over any sensitive locations.
READ MORE: Chinese spy balloon got intel from sensitive military sites while flying over US: Report
Leaked U.S. intelligence documents recently provided new details on as many as four Chinese spy balloons, including one that flew over a U.S. carrier strike group before another flew over the U.S. in February.
At least one of the balloons may have been equipped with an advanced sensor capable of seeing through certain materials.
One balloon that flew over the U.S. earlier this year had a solar panel array that was “more than enough” to power “any” spying tech – including a sensor that can see through some materials and pick up fine details on the Earth’s surface.
Called synthetic aperture radar, the sensor can penetrate darkness, cloud cover, and thin materials, such as tarps, to reveal what is underneath, according to the Post. Instead of capturing optical images, synthetic aperture radar works by pulsing the Earth’s surface with electromagnetic waves, according to NASA.
