Fact check: Satellites are real and in outer space, contrary to claim

The claim: US government confirmed all satellites are just balloons

A Feb. 3 Instagram post (direct link, archived link) shows a screenshot of a tweet that references the Chinese spy balloon spotted floating across the U.S. in early February.  

“Whoops. US Gov just let slip that satellites are actually just balloons,” reads the text in the tweet.

The tweet directs social media users to an NBC article with the headline, “Suspected Chinese spy balloon found over northern U.S.” 

The Instagram post has been liked more than 1,000 times in four days. 

Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest

Our rating: False

None of the U.S. military and government officials in the NBC article gave any statement “admitting” that satellites are balloons. Some balloon satellites can be defined as balloons, but satellites do exist in space and are not all balloons. This claim is an offshoot of the long-debunked flat Earth theory.

No evidence that US government officials admitted all satellites are balloons  

Approximately 20 balloon satellites have been launched into space over the past 50 years, according to Dean Hirasawa, a spokesperson for the Satellite Industry Association. But the existence of balloon satellites does not negate the existence of other Earth-orbiting satellites, he said.

“While some balloon satellites certainly can be defined as balloons, clearly the majority of the more than 7,000 artificial satellites now in Earth’s orbit are not balloons,” Hirasawa told USA TODAY in an email.

Claims that satellites and space aren’t real are routinely circulated by flat Earth believers.

NASA launched a number of “balloon satellites” into low-Earth orbit throughout the 1960s. One example is the Echo 1, a 100-foot-diameter communications satellite used to reflect radio and radar signals and track variations in air density at high levels of the Earth’s atmosphere. 

Fact check: Starlink satellites are real and orbiting Earth

NASA launched its first satellite into space in 1958, a year after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1. Now, the agency has more than a dozen Earth satellites in orbit collecting data on the planet’s oceans, atmosphere, land and ice. 

There are also satellites from “dozens of countries and private companies from around the world,” said NASA spokesperson Patti Bielling. 

Images and videos of satellites being launched into space can be found in NASA’s Image and Video Library. 

“I can confirm that satellites do, in fact, exist,” Phyllis Whittlesey – a space scientist and instrumentalist at the University of California, Berkeley Space Sciences Lab – told USA TODAY in an email. “These instruments pass through my hands before they get mounted on top of a rocket and blown into space.”

USA TODAY reached out to the user for comment.

Our fact-check sources: 

• Dean Hirasawa, Feb. 8, Email exchange with USA TODAY
• European Space Agency, March 2, 2020, Low Earth orbit 
• NASA, accessed Feb. 10, NASA Image and Video Library
• NASA, accessed Feb. 10, Parker Solar Probe
• NASA, accessed Feb. 14, 25. Balloon Satellites
• NASA, Aug. 13, 2011, Project Echo
• NASA, Feb. 12, 2013, What Is a Satellite? 
• NASA, Oct. 4, 2011, Sputnik 1
• NASA, updated Aug. 3, 2012, Explorer 1 Overview
• NASA (YouTube), March 1, 2022, Watch NOAA’s GOES-T Weather Satellite Launch to Geostationary Orbit 
• Patti Bielling, Nov. 7, 2022, Email exchange with USA TODAY 
• Phyllis Whittlesey, Oct. 24, 2022, Email exchange with USA TODAY
• U.S. Department of State, Nov. 7, 2022, Email exchange with USA TODAY  

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.