"Lack education and imagination", surprised that's coming from you.

Do you understand how our early warning systems operates? I'm not going to call you a name, but the reason they said it was NORAD is because they needed to make it look like this system does have things under control. However, they realized that saying "NORAD shot down another balloon" would sound ridiculous to most people (rightfully so). So they tried to make it sound more threatening.

Sorry, anyone sounds naïve to me if they think they did because they had "limited correct information."

Solar powered aircraft? What do you believe the radar signature of that sucker would be? Let alone how visible it would be to satellites. And it's slow, so who do you think stupid enough to try to fly one over Alaska?

Keep in mind, the ONLY reason we learned about that first balloon is a local TV station in Montana or somewhere ran a story on it!!! It forced the gov't to respond.

The original balloon tech that the Chinese used had a parachute system so they could bring down the balloon if they needed. Did this one have it and they didn't use it, or was it broke. Or did it not have one, if so, why? And where is the information about the first balloon. Very sketchy.

You point me to where it says discernable clouds are above 30,000 feet. I don't mean diffuse vapor. I take you don't fly much.