> American officials later disclosed that they had been tracking the balloon since it was launched from Hainan and its original destinations were likely Guam an

> American officials later disclosed that they had been tracking the balloon since it was launched from Hainan and its original destinations were likely Guam and Hawaii,[a] but prevailing winds blew it off course and across North America.[11] > The Chinese government maintained it was a civilian (mainly meteorological) airship that had been blown off course. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Chinese_balloon_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Chinese_balloon_incident