It's not clear to me just HOW the balloon was "shot down". From the posted civilian videos, it LOOKS like just the balloon "bag" was hit and thereby rendered incapable of providing buoyancy (i.e., it was popped!). At that point, it was only 60000 ft high, so why wouldn't the vast bulk of the payload simply plummet in an arc to the ground, still mostly intact? Why would there have been debris scattered over a 7 mile radius (as per the news reports I've seen). Was the payload so fragile that it broke apart due to whatever terminal velocity it attained? I could maybe see the solar panels being somewhat fragile, but the rest of it too?

I also wonder why a more controlled descent couldn't have been achieved by simply putting enough holes in the balloon bag to cause it to leak and gradually descent. Calling all aeronauts who know more about balloons in general as well as meteorologists in particular who might have detailed knowledge about the workings of weather balloons (granting that this wasn't a weather balloon, but the balloon tech is probably the same).

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