I wonder... Did they not consider the possibility of getting a C130 or C17 in the air, opening the loading bay door and capturing the balloon, and thus discovering what instruments were attached and what their purpose was?
Do what is suggested (capture) would have been better. Blowing the balloon blew up evidence
“Did they not consider the possibility of getting a C130 or C17 in the air, opening the loading bay door and capturing the balloon..”
At 60,000 feet up?
L
It's a fair question for a civilian to ask, but in practice, hollywood doesn't reflect reality. This is not a Michael Bay film.
That said, do you know how many meetings were held in the past week where someone who should have known better asked the same question and because of his or her rank, the rest of the people in the meeting had to get on the phone and ask the people who just might, maybe, on the off chance someone knows something. SpaceX was probably called at least four times, someone probably demanded to talk to Elon.
There is at least one US proven aerial catchment system in existence, but it was not designed for this, and likely it has been mothballed for so long that by the time they even figured out where the dang thing was the balloon would be gone, much less figuring how to modify it to catch a balloon satellite.
A lá the opening scene of Star Wars, Episode IV, A New Hope?
As large as that balloon appeared from the ground, I don’t think an airplane could have captured it in any conceivable way.