Don’t know about why but the OP was pretty thorough.
They already have the debris-field mapped and salvage is underway.
I just collect data points and post them when they appear interesting.
I speculate that it was shot down because of the blowback from The Balloon; Radar > eyes-on to see if it is manned > Fox2
I’ll put it out there that \maybe\ this new object was following a signal from the item dropped in Nebraska?
Manned? So if the chicoms really wanted to play rough they’s borrow a space dog from the Russians and let it ride a FJBalloon. The SPCA would never let SloJoe shoot it down. Probably make him launch a load of milkbones just to keep Muffyvich happy?