A spy balloon gripped a nation. What happens now with US and China?

A Chinese spy balloon’s drifting flight over the United States has highlighted possible holes in the nation’s defenses while symbolizing the developing military rivalry between the world’s two largest economic powers.

U.S. officials have been revealing what they’ve learned so far. Visible equipment when it was aloft included antennas capable of locating and listening in on communications devices, they said. Such capability is not consistent with China’s claim that the balloon was a weather tracking instrument that had gone astray, according to the U.S. government. Meanwhile, an unidentified object was shot down off the Alaska coast on Friday.

Initial retrieval efforts in the area where the balloon was shot down off the South Carolina coast have snagged large pieces of the envelope, some wires, and scattered electronics. It will still take some time to retrieve the main payload elements, said officials.

While balloons might seem like an old-fashioned technology today, they are relatively inexpensive, carry large loads, and can be difficult to spot, said officials. Some previous flights by Chinese balloons over U.S. territory during the administration of former President Donald Trump were not detected at the time. They were classified as unknown airborne objects.

“That’s a domain awareness gap that we need to figure out,” said Gen. Glen VanHerck at a Pentagon briefing this week.

A Chinese spy balloon’s drifting flight over the United States grabbed public attention last week, highlighting possible holes in the nation’s defenses while symbolizing the developing military rivalry between the world’s two largest economic powers. A second object was shot down off the Alaska coast on Friday.

The balloon saga began when the first craft was detected over Alaska, north of the Aleutian Islands, on Jan. 28. The large, white balloon went down when an Air Force F-22 fired an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile, apparently hitting the area where the balloon connected to its surveillance payload.

“FRANK 01, Splash one!” said an F-22 pilot after the explosion, referencing his call sign, according to audio posted by Air & Space Forces Magazine.

“The balloon is completely destroyed,” said the pilot.

Since then U.S. officials have been gradually revealing what they knew prior to the flight, and what they learned during it – about China’s espionage aims and its use of seemingly low-tech surveillance technology. Here’s what we know now about some key questions: