>> quiet confirmation that it was indeed likely accidentally blown off course, as it is indeed, a weather balloon. "So the balloon assessment was up to 200 fee

>> quiet confirmation that it was indeed likely accidentally blown off course, as it is indeed, a weather balloon. "So the balloon assessment was up to 200 feet tall for the actual balloon. The payload itself, I would categorize that as a jet airliner type of size, maybe a regional jet such as a [Embraer] ERJ or something like that," VanHerck explained. "Probably weighed in excess of a couple thousand pounds." Source: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/our-first-look-chinese-spy-balloon-debris-being-recovered https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/our-first-look-chinese... That's quite a payload for a weather balloon. The weather balloon also just happened to pass over multiple sensitive defense sites: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/map-close-chinese-spy-balloon-flew-us-nuclear-arsenal-rcna69376 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/map-close... Such a misfortunate misunderstanding.