In early February, the US military shot down the balloon after days of flying over the United States. The United States accused China of espionage, which Beijing denied. Washington said at the time that the US took immediate steps during the flyover to prevent the balloon from collecting sensitive information and reduce its intelligence value for China.
China was able to maneuver the balloon to fly over some of the sites multiple times, NBC News reported, citing senior government officials. Much more information could have been gathered from sensitive locations had the US government not restricted the balloon’s capability. In principle, their usefulness is limited compared to information that China can collect with low-Earth satellites.
