The Chinese spy balloon was clearly visible in the US-released selfie taken by a pilot just before it was shot down.
The selfie was taken from the cockpit of a U-2 espionage plane and features both the balloon floating above the US mainland and the shadow cast by the pilot’s aircraft.
More than two weeks after President Joseph Biden ordered the balloon to be shot down, the US Military Department published the selfie on Wednesday.
On February 3, while the balloon was hovering close to Kansas, a pilot shot a selfie.
The next day, the US brought the balloon to ground.
A few days later, CNN reported that a selfie taken in the cockpit had ‘gained legendary status in both NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) and the Pentagon’.
The U-2 is a high-altitude reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft with one seat.
‘It delivers critical imagery and signals intelligence to decision makers throughout all phases of conflict, including peacetime indications and warnings, low-intensity conflict, and large-scale hostilities,’ according to the Air Force.
U-2 planes have ‘glider-like characteristics’ and are usually ‘flown at altitudes over 70,000 feet’, according to the Air Force. Pilots are required to ‘wear a full pressure suit similar to those worn by astronauts’.
The US first spotted the balloon on January 28. China claimed that it was only a weather research ‘airship’ blown off course.
But the State Department stated that fly-bys showed that the ‘high-altitude balloon was capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations’.
The US earlier this month released several photos of the shot-down balloon being retrieved by Navy divers in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina.
One of those images, taken in the dark, showed nine Navy crew members dragging white plastic material and tubes on board a small boat. Another photo depicted ten crew members pulling white material as their vessel tilted, with a second boat next to it.