In a dramatic spy story that has made relations between the US and China even worse, the US Navy has started to pick up the pieces of the Chinese balloon that was shot down. The US Navy showed pictures of the pieces of the Chinese balloon.
The US Navy is using underwater robots, warships, and inflatable boats to get all of the balloon’s pieces back.
On Saturday, a U.S. military fighter plane shot down what was thought to be a Chinese spy balloon that was flying off the coast of South Carolina.
In the pictures, sailors are leaning over an inflatable boat and pulling large pieces of the white fabric and shell structure of the balloon out of the water.
As the US tries to figure out what the balloon could do, the pieces of it that were found are being taken to an FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, for analysis.
On Monday, Gen. Glen VanHerck, who is in charge of US Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the balloon was about 200 feet tall and was carrying a payload that weighed more than a couple of thousand pounds.
On Monday, US President Joe Biden defended the decision to wait to shoot down the balloon until it had crossed the country. He said that the Defense Department had decided that it would be best to do so over water. “When it came over the United States from Canada, I told the Defense Department I wanted to shoot it down as soon as it was safe to do so. They said we shouldn’t shoot it down over land. It wasn’t a big deal, so we should wait until it crossed the water.”
