While there is no doubt that at least one of the balloons shot down at great expense by the US airforce came from China, others appear to have been launched by US hobby clubs.
For those not in the know, and this appears to include the US airforce, balloon hobbiests are a small group in the US. Most enthusiasts use common, Mylar party balloons, with a set of published calculations to determine the amount of gas to inject. But the round-shaped Mylar balloons often are unable to ascend higher than 20,000-30,000 ft, Some pico balloonists have upgraded to different materials. In fact, the pico balloons weigh less than 6 lb. and therefore are exempt from most FAA airspace restrictions,
Pico Balloons can be purchased for $12-180 each, depending on the type. While this is a cheap hobby it is really expensive for the US airforce which has been shooting them down with missiles costing $150,000 each.
What is even funnier, according to Steve Trimble of Aviation Week the US government seems rather keen on keeping the myth flying. When Scientific Balloon Solutions (SBS) company founder, Ron Meadows, reached out to Gov't resources at the FBI and DoD, they were brushed off.
"Launching high-altitude, circumnavigational pico balloons has emerged only within the past decade," writes Trimble.
He said: "The balloons carry an 11-gram tracker on a tether, along with HF and VHF/UHF antennas to update their positions to ham radio receivers around the world. At any given moment, several dozen such balloons are aloft, with some circling the globe several times before they malfunction or fail for other reasons. The launch teams seldom recover their balloons."
Only North Korea, Yemen and the UK restrict transmissions from balloons in their airspace, so the community has integrated geofencing software into the tracking devices. The balloons still overfly the countries, but do not transmit their positions over their airspace.
An NSC spokesman John Kirby told reporters all three objects "could just be balloons tied to some commercial or benign purpose," but he did not mention the possibility of pico balloons.