from c infer n in the last several minutes just to highlight the clearest image yet that we have where you can see the balloon is popped, essentially, destroyed. you can clearly see what appears to know the surveillance equipment dropping very quickly into the atlantic ocean. i suppose that gives the military, the pentagon, some hope that what they are hoping to retrieve out of the atlantic is salvageable and may offer some clues as to what the chinese were up to. >> reporter: absolutely. that video is pretty incredible. it is not that close but it is pretty good quality, it is clear that missile hit the balloon itself. that's what the u.s. wants to get its hands on. this shows the payload was at least mostly intact. now, of course, it fell from