I am almost certain that is the case. I was in an undergrad science club that wanted to send up an atmospheric balloon for fun, but didn't get the money together to do it. And had a family member work at Raven, which made/makes (recently acquired and being sold off for parts to other engineering firms) all of the US's high altitude balloons. There are so many "citizen-scientists" that send up balloons without directly notifying the government that shooting down high-altitude objects will more directly affect Bob from Kansas's film project than hidden Chinese spy missions.