While the spy balloon was recovered, the search operations for the three other objects shot down were concluded after no debris was recovered.

Were the additional objects threats? “No, I don’t think so,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said.

Is it just space junk? “I don’t know,” Graham said.

Do we know if these objects are connected to one another? “It’s not clear to me,” said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del.

Yes, but what are these objects specifically? “They’re not at a stage where they can categorically identify them,” Tillis told reporters.

What does this mean about our awareness of our airspace? “This is a new phenomenon,” Risch said. “We have really good eyes on everything that happens up to about 60,000 feet. We have really good eyes on things that happen near space … [but this area in between] has not been focused on by militaries around the world for a long time."

“We have built large, sophisticated and complex systems that are principally designed to see missiles and planes,” Coons said. “If you take a second to think about it, they’re not designed to see slow-moving balloons.”

“We weren’t looking for those types of things for quite some time until now. Everything has been changed to pick it all up,” Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., told reporters.

What could shooting down these objects do? It “may have a calming influence on other people that [launch them],” Tillis suggested.

Should the White House be sharing more information? Yes, some lawmakers say.

“I’ve been getting very good briefings from the military” as it relates particularly to operations in Alaska, Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, told a large group of reporters. “But throughout this, the administration needs to be more transparent. … They can say what they know and don’t know. … It’s not sources and methods. The American people are intelligent and mature, let them know."

Other lawmakers said to give the White House time.

“If I were advising the president on this, I’d say ‘Wait until you’ve got clarity about what’s happening and a clear path forward about what we will do and should do,’” said Coons, who occasionally advises the Biden White House.

Late last week, Biden said the U.S. was developing “sharper rules” to track and monitor unidentified aerial objects.

What do senators think this means about China, which we know sent that one large balloon?

The spy balloon from China — the first object that jump-started weeks of questions around national security and whatever’s in the sky — is serious business.

“It seems like there’s an escalation building up to where they’re pushing the boundaries more than what we’d like,” Manchin said of China.

As for the other objects, one person was much less surprised by the frenzy. Paul Fetkowitz, president of Kaymont Consolidated, the largest provider of meteorological balloons to the U.S. government, told WBUR’s Here & Now that on any given day, there are hundreds of balloons floating over the country.

“There’s a lot going on up there to benefit us down here,” he said of balloons used for a few different reasons, including for research and data. “It’s all about protection of property and life safety.”