Replies to post #436414 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[Zorax]

They're lying. It couldn't have been no more than 30,000 feet. Google said so.

There is no estimate for how long the recovery mission will take, the military official said, but the fact that it came down in such a shallow area should make recovery "fairly easy".

The military official gave some detail of the engagement. The F-22 fired the Sidewinder at the balloon from an altitude of 58,000 feet. The balloon at the time was between 60,000 and 65,000 feet.

[12yearplan]

Not a great history there - maybe they should have shot it down at Alaska
..we were able to study and scrutinize the balloon and its equipment, which has been valuable."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_espionage_in_China