The Pentagon is tracking another balloon that flew over Hawaii and is moving toward Mexico, U.S. officials said, according to NBC News.
Three U.S. officials told NBC that the object did not fly over any sensitive locations. It’s unclear who is behind the mysterious aerial object.
The U.S. military, which has been tracking the balloon since last week, said it is not a threat to national security or air traffic, one official added.
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 a balloon flew over the U.S. in February.
The documents, first reported by The Washington Post, were allegedly leaked with hundreds of others over the chat service Discord by a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, who is now facing charges.
READ MORE: Chinese spy balloon got intel from sensitive military sites while flying over US: Report
According to one of the documents, a Chinese spy balloon at one point flew over a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group and another crashed in the South China Sea, the Post reported. It was not clear when these incidents occurred.
The Chinese spy balloon that flew over the U.S. in February could have been equipped with an advanced sensor capable of seeing through certain materials, the leaked document’s also revealed.
The balloon’s solar panel array 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, the Washington Post reported.
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.
This was a breaking news story. The details were periodically updated as more information became available.
