Who knew one balloon could cause so much butthurt... There are probably Chinese SAR satellites with clear enough resolutions to take videos of bedroom (or lack of) activities in DC but a stupid balloon triggers them like this? I don't get it.
What you can collect at 30 km altitude with near zero relative velocity to the ground is distinctly different than what you get at 500 km and 7 km/s with only minutes over target: Much better valuable data for Electronic signature collection. Closer proximity gets better performance from sensors and can offer persistence measured in months. 80k feet air baloon is basically a temporary satellite
Probing for military posture and response is what PLA is doing with this thing. No response from US sets a new normal. US don’t want to shoot it down most likely because China could reciprocate by shooting down USAF spy drones flying near or "into" PRC airspace
New level of “Salami slicing”...