NOS News•
For the first time, close-up images have been released of the Chinese balloon that floated into US airspace last month. The Pentagon has published a photo taken by an American pilot in the sky.
The picture was taken on February 3 at an altitude of over 18 kilometers by the pilot of a U2 spy flight. In the photo, next to the pilot’s helmet, the balloon and its payload are clearly visible. The shadow of the U2 plane can be seen on the balloon’s canvas.
At the time the photo was taken, the balloon had been floating in US airspace for nearly a week. Defense had picked up the object on the radar on January 28, when it entered the country over Alaska. It was decided not to intervene over land, for fear that debris would cause damage or casualties on the ground.
Debris recovered
Finally, a fighter jet shot the balloon out of the sky off the coast of South Carolina. Defense succeeded in recovering debris from the water and the seabed. They have been handed over to the FBI for investigation.
Since then, three more smaller unknown objects have been spotted over the US and Canada, possibly because the radar was fine-tuned after the first incident. The United States Air Force shot down all three, but so far has not been able to recover any fragments of them.
The US government believes that the first Chinese balloon was used for spying, but does not believe that the other objects were also used for that purpose.
