WASHINGTON (AP) – What in the world was that thing?

The large white orb that drifted across US airspace this week and was shot down by the Air Force over the Atlantic on live television on Saturday sparked a diplomatic uproar and blew up social media.

China insists that the balloon was simply a malfunctioning civilian airship used mainly for climate research that drifted away due to wind and had only limited “self-steering” capability. It also threatened “further action”.

In a statement after the downing of the plane, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the US use of force was “a clear overreaction and a serious violation of international practice.”

It added: “China will firmly uphold the legal rights and interests of the relevant company while at the same time reserving the right to take further action in response.”

The United States says there is no doubt it was a Chinese spy balloon. His presence prompted Foreign Secretary Antony Blinken to cancel a weekend visit to China that was already aimed at easing tensions between the countries.

The Pentagon says the balloon, which carries sensors and surveillance equipment, was manoeuvrable and showed it could change course. It spread over sensitive areas of Montana where nuclear warheads are siloed, prompting the military to take action to prevent intelligence gathering.

A US Air Force fighter jet downed the balloon off the Carolina coast on Saturday afternoon. Television footage showed a small explosion, then the balloon drifted slowly towards the water. An operation is underway to remove the remains.

Here’s a look at what’s known – and what’s not – about balloons:

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a … spy balloon

The Pentagon and other US officials say it was a Chinese spy balloon – about the size of three school buses – that flew east of the US at an altitude of about 60,000 feet (18,600 meters). The US says it was used for surveillance and intelligence gathering, but officials have provided few details.

U.S. defense and military officials said Saturday that the balloon entered the U.S. air defense zone north of the Aleutian Islands on Jan. 28 and crossed Alaska into Canadian airspace in the Northwest Territories on Jan. 30. The next day he went back to the US territory of northern Idaho. The US official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue.

The White House said Biden was first briefed on the balloon on Tuesday. The State Department said Blinken and Under Secretary Wendy Sherman discussed the matter with senior Chinese officials in Washington on Wednesday evening.

In the first public US statement, Brig. Pentagon Press Secretary General Pat Ryder said Thursday evening that the balloon was not a military or physical threat — an acknowledgment that it was not carrying weapons. “Once the balloon was found, the US government took immediate action to protect against the collection of sensitive information,” he said.

Although the balloon was not armed, it posed a threat to the United States, said retired Army General John Ferrari, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. The flight, he said, could be used to test America’s ability to detect incoming threats and find holes in the country’s air defense warning system. This would have allowed the Chinese to detect electromagnetic emissions that high-altitude satellites could not detect, such as low-power radio frequencies that could help them understand how US weapons systems communicate in different ways.

As the balloon rolled over Montana on Wednesday, Biden authorized the military to shoot it down as soon as it was in a location where civilians would not be in undue danger. Due to its large size and altitude, the debris field of its sensors and the balloon itself were expected to extend for miles. Hence, top military and defense leaders advised Biden not to take it off the ground even though it was in a sparsely populated area.

At 2:39 p.m. Saturday, a single F-22 fighter jet from Langley Air Force Base, Virginia — flying at an altitude of 58,000 feet — fired at the AIM as the balloon flew into US airspace about 6 nautical miles off the coast of South Carolina. -9X sidewinder in it. The Sidewinder is a short-range air-to-air missile used primarily by the Navy and Air Force, the missile is about 10 feet long and weighs about 200 pounds.

Live news feeds showed the moment of impact, as the balloon collapsed and began its long fall into the Atlantic.

The F-22s were supported by an array of Air Force and Air National Guard fighter jets and tankers, including F-15s from Massachusetts and tanker aircraft from Oregon, Montana, Massachusetts, South Carolina, and North Carolina. All the pilots returned to the base safely and there were no injuries or other damage on the ground, a senior military official told reporters at a briefing on Saturday.

As the disintegrated balloon slowly descended, US Navy ships had already moved in, waiting to collect the debris.

The Federal Aviation Administration temporarily closed airspace along the Carolina coast, including airports in Myrtle Beach and Charleston, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina. And the FAA and Coast Guard worked to clear the airspace and water below the balloon.

Once the balloon crashed into the water, US officials said, the debris field stretched at least 7 miles and was 47 feet deep in water. This depth is less than they planned, making it easier to retrieve pieces of the sensor package and other parts that might be salvageable.

Officials said the USS Oscar Austin, a Navy destroyer, the USS Carter Hall, a dock landing ship, and the USS Philippine Sea, a guided-missile cruiser, were all part of the recovery effort and that a rescue ship would arrive within days. . He said Navy divers would be on hand if needed, along with unmanned vessels that could retrieve debris and bring it back to ships. The FBI will also be on hand to sort and evaluate anything seized, officials said.

As for the value of the intelligence, US officials said the balloon’s entire journey to the US gave experts several days to analyze it, gather technical data and learn about things like what it was doing, how it was doing it and why China was using it. He declined to elaborate, but said he expects to learn more as he collects and examines the debris

Spy balloons have a history

Spy balloons aren’t new – primitive balloons are centuries old, but came into greater use during World War II.

US officials said on Saturday that similar Chinese balloons had transited the continental United States at least three times during the Trump administration and once before the Biden administration. But none of these events lasted that long.

During World War II, Japan released thousands of hydrogen balloons carrying bombs, and hundreds ended up in the US and Canada. Most were ineffective, but one was fatal. In May 1945, six civilians were killed when a balloon was found on the ground in Oregon and exploded.

After the war, America’s own balloon effort ignited alien stories and legends connected to Roswell, New Mexico.

According to military research documents and studies, as part of early post-World War II efforts to detect Soviet missile launches, the U.S. began using giant trains of balloons and sensors that were interconnected and spread more than 600 feet apart. They called it Project Mogul.

In 1947 one of the balloon trains crash-landed at Roswell Army Airfield and the wreckage was found by Air Force personnel unaware of the event. Unusual experimental equipment made detection difficult, leaving the air crew with unanswered questions, which eventually — with the help of UFO enthusiasts — took on a life of their own. The simple answer, according to military reports, was on Mount Sacramento at the Project Mogul launch site in Alamogordo.

Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Ellen Knickmeyer, Matthew Lee, Amer Madhani and Michael Balsamo contributed to this report.