South Dakota
Mystery over Montana: Balloon spotted in weekend skies owned by South Dakota company
![Mystery over Montana: Balloon spotted in weekend skies owned by South Dakota company](https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/e2b5003/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1920x1008+0+0/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fewscripps-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fca%2Fe2%2F97214a144e509f0957cb6603e55c%2Fballoon-over-weekend-2-1-1.jpg)
BILLINGS — After last year’s sighting of a Chinese spy balloon over Billings, Montanans have kept their eyes on the skies. That was especially true over the weekend, when several residents posted pictures on social media of a balloon spotted hovering over Montana skies.
That balloon, however, was not a foreign surveillance tool: It’s owned by South Dakota-based aerospace technology company, Aerostar, which is conducting research to improve its technology.
The balloon spotted over the weekend was much bigger than a weather balloon.
“That Thunderhead system, like the one you sent the photo of, that’s a 60 or 70-foot wide balloon, so it’s a pretty good size balloon,” said Russ Van Der Werff, vice president of stratosphere solutions for Aerostar over a video call Tuesday.
Aerostar
South Dakota-based Aerostar launched the balloon that many spotted, using it for research and development.
“Suddenly people’s ears perk up when the balloons go overhead, and they think there must be something going on. But the reality is, you know, we’ve been flying these systems for decades,” said Van Der Werff.
“We fly probably a couple dozen balloons a year just as R&D tests to test the navigation, the endurance, the steering, the solar and battery technology and all of that,” Van Der Werff said. “It’s designed to be a long-duration, navigational-enabled stratospheric balloon. So it flies, say, between 50 and 100,000 feet and it can steer to a location and persist there by using different winds at different altitudes up in the atmosphere.”
These balloons are fitted with an aviation transponder, so they can be tracked.
“We file a flight plan, just like an aircraft would, work in contact with the FAA or whatever country authorities were flying over, just like an aircraft would,” said Van Der Werff.
MTN News
The company works with partners like NASA, Google, and even the U.S. military, helping with everything from communications during natural disasters to scientific research.
It’s something Van Der Werff hopes Montanans will get used to as the technology improves.
“As we figure out how to do more interesting stuff, more important stuff with these systems, there’s going to be more of them there. So hopefully people can get used to seeing them. And it’s not always a bad thing. In fact, a lot of the things we’re doing are really good,” Van Der Werff said.
As a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Glasgow, Patrick Gilchrist says his agency periodically fields calls about strange balloon sightings, particularly in the wake of the Chinese spy balloon flight last year.
“Certainly, it’s drawn attention to weather balloons and to what’s going on there. We’ve gotten some questions,” said Gilchrist in a video call Tuesday.
Dozens of commenters on social media speculated that this latest balloon sighting was a National Weather Service balloon, but Gilchrist said his agency’s balloons are smaller.
“Ours are designed to go from the service of the Earth up to about 100,000 feet, sample what that is, then they burst. Then they fall to the Earth and they’re done with them basically,” Gilchrist said.
National Weather Service Glasgow
NWS launches at least two weather balloons daily from both Glasgow and Great Falls, usually around 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. The balloons provide the data that drive their forecasts.
“We’ve seen some of these balloons drift through from time to time, but we don’t think a whole lot of them,” added Gilchrist.
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South Dakota
Final Day: Almost Arkansas
![Final Day: Almost Arkansas](https://dakotafreepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/IMG_4085-1024x768.jpeg)
I don’t know what the Internet thinks of my travels, but the pond butterflies at Fort Crowder shooting range found my bicycle (and me) quite interesting:
A few of these scaly-wingers tagged along for a few meters, but they all headed back to the water well before I reached the exit. Too bad—I could have used their help lifting my gear over the gate.
Yesterday was Day 5, the final planned day of my ride from Lincoln, Nebraska, to Bentonville, Arkansas. My dear wife is coming to retrieve me today—we’ll spend this evening and all Friday enjoying the local trails and shops, then head back en auto Saturday. Knowing Wednesday was my last hard day in the saddle, I could give it my all.
Morning in Pittsburg was humid, and the radar showed rain west. But the sun wasn’t pounding yet, and the wind was down from yesterday, now just light and southwesterly. I think I can, I think I can…
But boy, all those woods and fields and curvy roads do make a guy hungry:
But then, just past Jane, Missouri, the one real disaster of the trip:
Plam! went my back tire! Grind grind grind went my less protected rim. I braked fast, looked under me, and saw a flat. The instantaneous deflation told me this was no simple thorn prick that my tire slime would fill, no nail or branch jab that I could plug. This was a one-inch tear in my rear tire. I don’t know if I hit some sharp metal or if the tire just gave out from some defect or the heat or the strain, but I didn’t spend a lot of time scanning for the cause. I was done riding. After 460 miles, just ten miles from terminus, not quite to the Arkansas border, I was done.
So, alas, the bicycling portion of my trip was only three states—Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. I don’t get to put any Arkansas miles on the Trek 1120, an otherwise mighty and comfy bike that experienced just one catastrophic failure. And boy, if the bike had to give up, it picked about the best place to quit that it could have, just a short hitch to my intended lodging rather than out in the rain Monday morning in Admire, Kansas, or any place else much farther from where I hoped to be.
South Dakota
Sioux Falls, South Dakota Burger King worker retires after 48 years
![Sioux Falls, South Dakota Burger King worker retires after 48 years](https://cdn.abcotvs.com/dip/images/15028890_070424-wls-bk-retired-11a-vid.jpg?w=1600)
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (WLS) — A Burger King employee in South Dakota is retiring after 48 years.
Jane Aulner started her career with the fast food restaurant in 1976. She said the feeling of family with her coworkers is one of the reasons she never left the restaurant for nearly half a century.
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She also said she felt comfort in ggetting to know people and watching the grow.
“It warms my heart when I got somebody coming inside or come through the drive through, they go ‘Wow, you’re still here. Do you remember me?’” she said. “And they’ll tell me their name like maybe I trained them or had them when they were in college, before they moved off and got married and had their own lives. So that was, that was really fun.”
As much as Aulner’s coworkers made an impact on her, they said she has left an impression on them.
“She’s huge, she’s the cornerstone,” said manager Belvie Kennerly. “I mean, you can’t do anything without a team member like June to help keep things running for you.”
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South Dakota
South Dakota plans celebration for America's 250th anniversary
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The South Dakota commission planning a celebration for America’s 250th anniversary officially launches its campaign this week.
The goal is to inspire individuals to accomplish 250 miles of outdoor related activity from July 4, 2024 leading up to the nation’s 250th celebration on July 4, 2026.
Challenges and prizes have been established with a partnership between the commission, City of Deadwood, Department of Game, Fish, and Parks, the Battleship South Dakota Memorial, and the South Dakota State Fair.
Smaller prizes can also be earned by completing 80 miles in honor of 80 years since operation OVERLORD during World War II, or walking 150 miles to celebrate Deadwood’s anniversary.
The commission said additional challenges and prizes will be announced soon.
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