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There are new developments concerning that suspected chinese spy balloon being tracked across the u.s. the pentagon now says there s a second chinese surveillance balloon somewhere over will tin america. a u.s. official says one doesn t appear to be heading to the united states. in a rare public aknowledgement, china called the intrusion an accident and claims it s only a science balloon, but the pentagon says it s a surveillance aircraft. on friday secretary of state antony blinken responded by postponing his long-planned trip to beijing. the high altitude balloon is being pushed along by the jet stream. new models suggest it could be blown over the atlantic some time today. tom foreman shows us how the object has been tracked over the last few days. . . it came in through canada, and dropped into montana where ....
That the prc s decision to take this action is detrimental to the substantive discussions we were prepared to have. reporter: it would have been the administration s highest level trip to china so far. the state department said that the rare chinese apology today and their claim that the balloon was for civilian purposes floating off course did not change their minds. i can imagine what the reaction would be in china if they were on the other end. and what this has done is created the conditions that undermine the purpose of the trip. reporter: the balloon is flying at 60,000 feet up in the atmosphere, equipped with solar panels for power and a surveillance payload. the pentagon says steps have been taken to protect sensitive intelligence targets beneath it on the ground, which may include silos of minutemen 3 nuclear ballistic missiles in montana. u.s. officials have been tracking the balloon closely for several days, debating whether ....
To shoot it down and advising president joe biden it would be too dangerous. it doesn t pose a risk to people on the ground as it is traversing the continental united states. out of an abund essabundance of caution, we are reviewing option. reporter: data indicate the balloon may have originated with central china with weather patterns pushing it over pacific ocean, into canada and the united states where it has been crossing montana and into missouri. with current conditions it could continue east and enter the atlantic ocean from north carolina. it can maneuver itself and has changed course. currently floating over the central u.s., officials say, while offering little more on its precise location. certainly has the ability to look up in the sky and see where the balloon is. reporter: and they have. curiously, training eyes and cameras towards the skies. what planet is that? ....
I wonder how you explain this particular move by the chinese. if it in fact was intentional and not some inadvertent floating balloon that got off course, why now? this was a critical time when you have secretary of state antony blinken go. why now? this may not have been their intent. it s something they have done before, to have spy balloons up in the air and they can fly 30,000 feet higher than most of our capabilities to intercept them, like the different aircraft that we have. so there is an advantage that they have by having these balloons up there, but you are not supposed to have them be visible to the naked eye. regular old person in billings, montana, that eliminates the plausible deniability. when spying is public, it forces someone like blinken to publicly respond as opposed to the diplomatic maneuvers that could have happened behind closed doors. this visit was spimportant for e ....
Ground as it currently is traversing the continental united states. so out of an abundance of caution, cognizant of the potential impact to civilians on the ground from a debris field, right now we re going to continue to monitor and review options. reporter: satellite and other data indicate the balloon may have originated in central china with weather patterns pushing it out over the pacific ocean into canada and down into the united states, where it has been crossing montana and into missouri. with current conditions, it could continue east and enter the atlantic ocean from north carolina. it can maneuver itself and has changed course, currently floating over the central u.s., officials say, while offering little more on its precise location. the public certainly has the ability to look up in the sky and see where the balloon is. reporter: and they have, curiously training eyes and cameras toward the skies. what planet is that? reporter: pilots have also reported seeing th ....