That was probably the best target. I’ve read that the missile may have had an inert warhead, intended to just destroy the envelope. You would not want to destroy the equipment you want to examine.
What are the chances the Pentagon and NSA don’t already know everything about that package before examining it?
I’m curious why the Chinese didn’t program the balloon to stay above 100,000 feet at all times. Might not have prevented the fighter shoot-down but might have made it a lot tougher to pull off.
That just sounds like good policy if you’re taking down some other nation’s hardware and want to retrieve it to examine. You don’t need Rancher Bob declaring that the Chinese surveillance package that landed on his property belongs to him now.
Good point. Perhaps this will test the source of their information.
Hopefully, the shoot-down will put the balloon controversy on the back burner (sorry), and I can lose the Fifth Dimension earworm.
I’m not touching that link.
Up, up, and away in my … 
You’re welcome. 
Funny - I went in a completely different direction.
Oh, that’s got some traction.
Shit.
Has this become a meme in China yet?
Of course about now it’d be appropriate for someone here to liken the White House and DoD’s reaction to the unexpected unwelcome balloon to the epic story of our own @Scylla’s encounter 20-ish years ago with an unexpected unwelcome blimp.
With a nod to this current thread as well:
Or this:
Neunundneunzig Luftballons:
There’s a lot more explosions and smoke in the video than you’d expect from the lyrics.
Master master
This is recorded through a fly’s ear
And you have to have a fly’s eye to see it
It’s the thing that’s gonna make Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band fat
Frank it’s the big hit
It’s the blimp
It’s the blimp Frank
It’s the blimp
When I see you floatin’ down the gutter
I’ll give you a bottle of wine
For all six years of my elementary school education, once a year we’d see the projector and get excited. Then the film would start and it was The Red Balloon. And we were all disappointed.
One internet point for you for your correct word choice pedantry.
I’m convinced a copy of that film was included with the purchase of every projector sold in the 1960s.
There is some speculation that this may be the highest-altitude air-to-air kill ever yet recorded, let’s hope it’s true.
What The Economist says.
Excerpt from above link.
“With luck the balloon incident will not escalate. But something else like it could. It is in the interests of everyone that the competition between China and America is calibrated—to the extent that it can be. If Messrs Biden and Xi do not want relations to be determined by accidents, errors and misunderstandings, they need to find better ways to communicate.
Long before the balloon crossed into America’s airspace, there had been discussion of new mechanisms to mitigate risks during crises. The Biden administration has talked explicitly about the need for “guardrails”, such as opening direct communication lines between the two sides’ military leaders and establishing protocols for their ships and planes to interact safely. China has been more cautious, viewing any agreements as an attempt to limit its military options.
Yet such agreements helped contain hostility in the cold war.”