Chinese man arrested for flying drone over launchpads of Kennedy Space Center
A Chinese man who claimed he was on vacation in the United States was arrested in July for flying a drone over restricted air space above two launchpads of Kennedy Space Center.
A Chinese man faces arraignment on two federal crimes after he flew a drone in restricted airspace above NASA’s Kennedy Space Center — encroaching within 1.56 miles of the Artemis-based pad 39B, a court affidavit said.
The evening of July 25, KSC police responded to Playalinda Beach Access #8 at Canaveral National Seashore and saw Xiaodong He operating the drone, the affidavit said. The drone had flown for 12 minutes and 24 seconds and recorded four videos, reaching a maximum altitude of 231 feet and capturing footage of KSC pads 39A and 39B, the Atlantic Ocean, Playalinda Beach, the Indian River Lagoon and North Kennedy Parkway.
He was accompanied by three family members, and one told police they were vacationing in the United States and flew the drone to capture scenery, the affidavit said. The Federal Aviation Administration has designated a restricted national defense airspace above KSC. All unmanned aircraft are prohibited, except when approved by NASA and the FAA.
Federal authorities have siezed his passport, and he now faces charges.
The claim they were vacationing might be true, but it is also likely true that he was assigned the task of obtaining this footage by the Chinese government. There have been repeated similar incidents of Chinese visitors flying drones above restricted military and civilian launch sites, at Cape Canaveral, at Kennedy, at Vandenberg, and at Boca Chica.
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Yup, vacationing alright! I have a friends who escaped from China.
“Author and Breitbart senior contributor Peter Schweizer writes in a new book, The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon, about a phenomenon dubbed ‘birth tourism.’ It means that hundreds of thousands of Chinese, considered citizens because they were born within United States territory—even though they were raised in the Communist hellhole of China—will be eligible to vote here within the next few years.”
??????? https://pjmedia.com/catherinesalgado/2026/01/18/could-a-million-chinese-communists-vote-in-2030-us-election-n4948440
America is a funny place it / we invite our enemies within and the only wat that America can be usurped is from within.
ON 9/11: WHO REALLY RUNS THE WORLD?
“Does America run the world? Does China or Russia run the world? Do the tensions and interests of each one of these players really “run the world” and the direction that it goes? That I think is an interesting question.
(A variation on the title for this post might be: WHO ASPIRES TO RUN THE WORLD?)
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/on-9-11-who-really-runs-the-world
Which ideology, which government, which economy, which military in today’s world actually runs things or has massive influence and affect for the most part? “
20 years ago I took my family on our only vacation to Hawaii. Stayed in a hotel in the Waikiki beach. A large section of the ground floor was rooms with windows covered over in Chinese posters, I went in there thinking it was a Chinese restaurant. A security guard quickly forced me out, and then I noticed that the people I walked in with were all pregnant mothers.
I asked the staff at the kiosk desk what was going on and they said it was none of my business that the Chinese rented the ground floor for a hospital. Came back from the beach during my stay to see mothers in wheelchairs been taken out to a airport bus with their babies in their hands. Another group of mothers came in as we were leaving our vacation.
Years later, while training a new coworker previously stationed at Midway, Revealed that midway was the largest destination for Chinese tourists. Not only with the children born there US citizens, but eligible for lifetime benefits. I had always wondered how so many Chinese grad students sent to American universities we’re actually US citizens.
Absolutely disgusting this has been allowed at any scale for decades.
And to add major insult to massive injury, the Supreme Court’s absolute fumbling and failure to outlaw the practice in their recent decision–a decision as bad or worse to our country’s future trajectory as was the 1857 Dred Scott decision.
Those hordes of chickens are coming “home” to roost in our elections–with mail-in ballots, these illegitimate “birthright citizens” can vote–undoubtedly are voting–today, right now—in all of our elections from the comforts of their domiciles in China.
Absolutely disgusting–this MUST be fixed.
This could all backfire, as I see them as the next Roof Koreans
https://abc7news.com/post/13-year-old-basketball-player-stomps-opponents-head-bay-area-game/15140665/
https://www.nbcnews.com/now/video/los-angeles-teen-punched-by-opponent-during-basketball-game-125922373867
The DNC refuses to tackle “thug life,” which I see as the greater threat.
As for who runs the world, your link to the UN agenda 2030 is horrifying. The only way to make everyone around the world equal after the bureaucracy divides up everything, is to eliminate the majority of the worlds population so that there are no poor.
As for science, I found this agenda plan quote revealing… the future will come to a standstill.
“• The Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science Technology and Innovation for the SDGs will be convened once a year, for a period of two days, to discuss STI cooperation around thematic areas for the implementation of the SDGs, congregating all relevant stakeholders to actively contribute in their area of expertise.”
All inventions and information will be shared or divvied out according to the whims of the United Nations… For two days once a year.
And how will they make this happen?
“71. We reiterate that this Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals and targets, including the means of implementation are universal, indivisible and interlinked.”
Sounds like a line from the terminator movie. I lost count of how many data centers they’re building in Utah, (another one just announced today) how many of these things does China need? I guess they’re getting us back for “gain of function” that we put in their country? China is using our power, our water and land instead of their own… The means they will use to control us in our own backyard.
Hurry Elon and get those ships built, before the UN seizes all land, money, farms, technologies and means of production for sustainability reasons.
Ten years in a federal prison — not prison camp, not prison farm, prison prison with gray bars and concrete walls. Couple that with a polite diplomatic note to the Chinese embassy noting the prison term and advising that all other ‘vacationers’ will get the same.
Better than going home….
I like drone footage of rockets flying past. The biggest intel coup was drone footage of Ship40’s nozzles…since blurred out in Scott Manley’s videos.
ITAR is more bothersome than what it is worth. China has built up its own experience post Loral…and Russia has been on a downhill slide since Korolev died.
I’d be more interested in just who pays for secret payloads in some of these space start-ups.
In unrelated news, researchers now admit that the Arctic ice tongue is recovering
https://phys.org/news/2026-08-anomalous-odden-ice-tongue-unusual.html
Not only that, but CO2 sequestration would make things worse:
https://phys.org/news/2026-09-southern-ocean-flip-carbon-source.html
Aren’t we glad Greta was ignored?
Jeff, Loral wasn’t nearly so big an help to China as you imagine. The US government did far more to aid Chinese rocketry by deporting Qian Xuesen to China than anything Loral did.
Yes, we all knew he was red-baited by Frank Burns types.
At least he won’t get sent to the organ banks.
Note just in from the Chinese Embassy: “ plenty more where he came from.”
Response note in from Secretary Rubio: “send ’em, we got room for ’em all.”
If I was any good at Photoshop I’d do one of those Rubio-in-a-chair images with him in a jailor’s outfit…
He had a drone that was unlocked, so it wouldn’t obey FAA flight restrictions. It wasn’t an off-the-shelf commercial drone.
The National Intelligence Law of the People’s Republic of China, enacted on June 28, 2017, establishes that “everyone is responsible for state security” and empowers the government to conduct intelligence activities, including requiring companies to assist in these efforts. Additionally, the Counterespionage Law, revised in 2023, expands the definition of espionage and mandates public participation in counterespionage efforts, increasing the government’s authority to combat perceived threats to national security.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Intelligence_Law_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China
As of 2023 China pays its people for the information they bring back, any and all information is evaluated including vacation photos on their phones. Just one lucky photo could pay for the vacation. Or so the government implies.
This Chinese law is why we need to remove all Chinese workers and students from the US and other western nations.
They have weaponized their citizens.
I felt better about Chinese espionage when they actually had state supported spies like the rest of the world. Spies we could hold and exchange for.