Image of a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon, taken by Billings, Montana resident on February 1. It was downed over the Atlantic Ocean after traversing much of the Continental US|Chase Doak|CC BY-SA 4.0
The US recovered sensors and critical electronics, which experts believe were used to gather intelligence, from the suspected Chinese spy balloon downed on February 4.
“Crews have been able to recover significant debris from the site, including all of the priority sensor and electronics pieces,” the US military’s Northern Command said in a statement.
Post downing the balloon, the military spotted three more objects that couldn’t be picked up by radar, leading to three more shootdowns between Friday and Saturday.
According to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the vessels posed a threat to civilian aviation and “potentially an intelligence collection threat.”
The White House press secretary, however, made one thing clear, they were not anything extraterrestrial.