The mysterious Chinese spy balloon overflight of the United States came to a head Saturday night when it was shot down over the American Atlantic coast. It was a stunning public spectale of a foreign power brazenly entering US airspace, leaving the Biden administration to explain the situation while trying to contain Republican criticism.

According to an authoritative Pentagon official with direct knowledge of the incident, this was only the latest mission in a larger Chinese strategy. It is believed that the Chinese have attempted a total of 5 globalcircumnavigation balloon missions, with a total of 20-30 balloon missions over the past decade.

While the balloons don’t seem to gather significantly more intelligence than Chinese satellites in low Earth orbit, they can provide better quality granularity in their images. Speculation of the balloon dispursing smaller spy devices has not yet been confirmed. Officials are currently attempting to capture the payload of the balloon, which