> How do we know it is a spy balloon and not just a weather balloon that got lost?

It has a much larger payload than weather balloons.

> If it is a spy balloon why not take it down gently and look at its payload?

That's what they did. Controlled shootdown over shallow water; they're collecting the parts now.

> Did the balloon got on top of a military base by chance or was it directed? How was it directed from so far away if the balloon has no propellers?

The Pentagon says it maneuvers. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/chinese-spy-ballo... Might be small propellers (think drone props) within that truss structure.

We've plenty of reason to develop the technology for space flight.

We've essentially zero reason to develop the technology to hijack a high-altitude helium ballooon. As clearly demonstrated, much easier techniques already exist.

We spend decades and billiobs if dollars planning and building space telescopes.

Why would we spend money investing in a balloon defense system, when we already have an air defense system that can handle them.

I have one question: If it was a rogue weather balloon, why didn't they call ahead and say, "hey we got this rogue weather balloon, headed into your airspace, don't freak out, shoot it down if you want, it's expendable, sorry for the aviation hazard", because that is what normal countries do.

Yup. Instead, China chose to escalate. What do the apologists think of this?

[1] https://apnews.com/article/politics-united-states-government...

Very "fish at a poker table, called out on bluff, explaining a story that makes no sense" vibes

> How do we know it is a spy balloon and not just a weather balloon that got lost??

We don’t _know_ this AFAIK, but we can make educated assumptions

> If it is a spy balloon why not take it down gently and look at its payload?

That’s what they did

> Did the balloon got on top of a military base by chance or was it directed?

Not publicly known AFAIK

> How was it directed from so far away if the balloon has no propellers?

I believe they said it had a propeller, but even if it didn’t balloons can be directed by changing altitude since the wind blows different directions based on how high up you are. This is how hot air balloons navigate

If there are unfortunate technical difficulties in either recovering or analyzing the balloon, we will know that it was in fact a weather balloon.

I don't buy the argument that all weather balloons look the same and this one is too big. If I wanted to camouflage spy balloons, I'd produce identically looking weather balloons.

Weather balloons have been pretty standard for decades, so if you want to start using a markedly different kind to blend in with your spy balloons you'll need to establish their plausibility first. Like showcasing them at metrological conferences where you enthusiastically explain the real advantages of such a large platform for weather monitoring and show the results you're getting and so on. Otherwise it's as if you turned up at a bank's drive-through in a tank claiming that it's just your family car.

I believe that is called the "Glomar Explorer" P.R. strategy !

> I don't buy the argument that all weather balloons look the same and this one is too big. If I wanted to camouflage spy balloons, I'd produce identically looking weather balloons.

That reasoning is topsy-turvy.

It would work if you would say: "It looks like a weather balloon, but I don't believe it is not a spy balloon just because of that. If I wanted to camouflage spy balloons, I'd produce identically looking weather balloons."

It doesn't work in a scenario where you are observing a balloon which looks different than the usual weather balloons. You cannot say "it cannot be a spy balloon because if it were a spy balloon I would design it to look like a weather balloon". Maybe it is a spy balloon and the people who made it didn't want to hide the fact. Maybe they wanted to hide the fact but couldn't.

Answers to all of these were available in just about any news article on the topic.

Weather balloons usually pop when they are high enough and fall to the ground.