really smart decision to wait until it made our coastal waters...recovery of key pieces should be much easier in 47 feet of water, instead of them smashing into the ground, or someone's home...not so easy to predict where ~2,000 lbs of free falling debris might land. The DOD handled this just fine and not overruled by the WH.
btw, here is a local Oklahoma FOX stations report on this, suggesting that the Chinese probably got nothing out of their sojourn...yet, we...with our recovery of equipment in shallow water...will be able to 'reverse engineer' the spy package it carried...note:...shooting it down over the Pacific is not a good choice...much deeper and colder waters...again, great choice by JB's true "Pros".
https://www.fox23.com/news/chinese-balloon-likely-wasnt-successful-gathering-intelligence-about-us-osu-professor-says/WBQEKWCNSFCXHDG2GC2APU45WY/
Link: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/02/what-is-up-with-this-chinese-spy-balloon.html