On Recent Trial Balloons And Heavenly Signs

Thoughts on an emergent industry

Remember how the year started out weird? During January, Hawaiians saw these spectacular beams of light in the sky. Within a few weeks, it turned out to be a Chinese satellite, Daqi-1, launched in April 2022 and carrying LIDAR (laser imaging, detection, and ranging) “for detecting atmospheric aerosols and carbon dioxide,” according to Sascha Brodsky at …