NORAD has learned to check hobbyist websites to identify balloons since the US military shot down three unidentified objects in 2023.

After dubious shootdowns, NORAD now checks with balloon hobbyist groups

The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade is a hobbyist group that builds, launches and tracks “pico balloons,” lightweight balloons that can carry a small payload like a radio tracker or camera and generally cost between $12 and $200. Since 2021, the group’s balloons have circumnavigated the Earth in peace.

The club takes its name from the movie “Up,” in which the balloon-flying Carl awards a bottlecap badge to his young passenger, Russell, which had been given to him by his wife, Ellie.

Then in February 2023, the group announced that it had lost contact with one of its balloons somewhere over Alaska or possibly Canada. That same day, a U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor — a $142 million fighter jet — downed an unknown “high altitude” object over the Yukon, Canada, using an AIM 9X, a $400,000 air-to-air missile.