USAF shot down a $13 32 inch balloon with a 10 oz payload, launched legally under pico-balloon rules, and which periodically transmitted its location in flight.
The US likely spent well over $1 million to take out this balloon, which had circumnavigated the globe, 6 times already. Only then did NORAD notice the balloon.
Large numbers of pico-balloons are launched each year. NORAD was apparently unaware of these balloons and frankly has embarrassed themselves and the U.S. government.
Mystery object shot down over Yukon may have been ‘pico balloon’ | Space
