THANKS, XI!:

On Monday, VanHerck reiterated what other officials said last week: the sensor package on the balloon offered China no better intelligence capabilities than their satellites and other means already possess. 

"We did not assess that it presented a significant collection hazard beyond what already exists in actual technical means from the Chinese," he said. 

Simple physics explains why. Imaging satellites, whether hovering in geostationary orbit or zooming by in low earth orbit, can carry much larger telescopes than can a payload affixed to a balloon. While both a balloon and a satellite might be able to pick up radio transmissions from a sensitive military site, such as Montana's Malmstrom Air Force Base, that communication would likely be encrypted anyway, James A. Flaten, an aerospace engineer at the University of Minnesota, told NPRs Geoff Brumfiel. 

Since these sites are already visible to passing satellites and the balloon wasn't able to stay overhead long enough to observe patterns of life, it's hard to say what useful information it might have collected. 

Still, VanHerck said, the Defense Department took "maximum protective measures while the balloon transited across the United States" to prevent intelligence collection. 

That suggests the use of lasers or other forms of directed energy to essentially blind, or dazzle, the camera lens on the balloon. VanHerck said he would not comment on the "non-kinetic effects" they used to limit intelligence collection until he had spoken to Congress.

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