Answers slowly emerge on Chinese spy balloon, other UFOs. What we know

After weeks of questions about a Chinese spy balloon and a series of unidentified objects spotted flying in or near American airspace, the answers are coming into focus.

Here’s what we know. 

US ends search for objects shot down over Alaska, Lake Huron

The U.S. military said Friday that it has ended its search for airborne objects that were shot down near Deadhorse, Alaska, and over Lake Huron on Feb. 10 and 12.

The statement released late Friday came hours after officials said the U.S. has finished efforts to recover the remnants of the large balloon that was shot down Feb. 4 off the coast of South Carolina, and analysis of the debris so far reinforces conclusions that it was a Chinese spy balloon.

U.S. Northern Command said the decision to end the search for the objects shot down over Alaska and Lake Huron came after the U.S. and Canada “conducted systematic searches of each area using a variety of capabilities, including airborne imagery and sensors, surface sensors and inspections, and subsurface scans, and did not locate debris.” Northern Command said air and maritime safety perimeters were also being lifted at both those sites.

Chinese spy balloon recovered 

The military has completed the recovery of the Chinese spy balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina, the U.S. Northern Command said in a statement. 

The Navy found and retrieved the balloon’s remnants, and are handing over the debris to the FBI. Counterintelligence experts will examine what’s left of the balloon at the FBI’s lab in Virginia.

VP Harris: Chinese spy balloon ‘not helpful,’ but relationship won’t change

In an exclusive interview with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, Vice President Kamala Harris affirmed that the Chinese spy balloon was shot down because officials were “confident” it was used by China to “spy on the American people.”

Harris said that the government’s strategy for taking down the balloon factored in risk of harming American civilians and the ability to preserve the balloon to “investigate from a forensic perspective.”

On the effects of the balloon on U.S.-China relations, Harris said that the Biden administration intends to maintain its view of the two nations’ relationship — that competition is welcome, but “conflict and confrontation” is not.

“That (relationship) is not going to change, but surely and certainly, that balloon was not helpful, which is why we shot it down,” Harris said. “But our relationship and our policy towards China remains what it has been.”

Kirby: No promises on identifying three UFOs

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby made no promises when asked whether the public will eventually learn what the three unidentified objects shot down in recent weeks are in a press briefing Friday.

It comes down to the government’s ability to recover the objects, which Kirby said landed in “extreme” conditions from the Alaskan arctic to the Yukon wilderness to Lake Huron’s deep waters.

“It’s going to be very difficult to find them, let alone once you find that debris to be able to do the forensics to identify it,” Kirby said. “So I can’t promise you that we’ll know definitively one way or the other.”

Ownership not yet claimed over the three UFOs

Kirby also said Friday that no entities have come forward to claim possible ownership over any of the three unidentified flying objects shot down in recent weeks. 

“As far as I know, it is true that no one has come forward to claim ownership,” /he said.

But that doesn’t mean the government is fully in the dark about the objects. 

“I never said we had zero idea,” Kirby said of identifying the three objects. “I said we don’t know what they are.”

Alaska UFO could belong to Illinois amateur balloonists: report

An amateur balloonists club based in Illinois says one of its balloons last reported its location over Alaska on Saturday before going “missing in action” — the same day an unidentified object was shot down by the U.S. military in the same area. 

“Pico Balloon K9YO last reported on February 11th at 00:48 zulu near Hagemeister Island after 123 days and 18 hours of flight,” reads a Feb. 14 blog post by the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB).

The group did not connect the two incidents in its post. Aviation Week first reported a possible connection.

NIBBB did not immediately respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment. 

Biden: Other mysterious flying objects shot down likely not spy balloons

President Joe Biden said Thursday that three unidentified flying objects shot down last weekend over North American airspace were “most likely” balloons tied to private companies or research institutions, not part of China’s surveillance spy balloon operation. 

Biden, delivering his first public address on the mysterious objects amid bipartisan pressure from lawmakers demanding more information, said there’s “no evidence” that more flying objects are in the sky than usual.

He said the intelligence community is still assessing objects that were shot down over Alaska, Canada’s Yukon Territory and Lake Huron. “Nothing right now,” he said, suggests the objects are tied to China’s spy balloon program, even though they were shot down about a week after the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon off the Atlantic coast.

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Contributing: Tom Vanden Brook, Joey Garrison, Michael Collins, The Associated Press