Photo: U.S. Defense Department
The U.S. Defense Department released a high-altitude selfie showing the Chinese spy balloon in the background. The photo was captured on February 3 by the unidentified pilot of a U-2 spy plane. The Pentagon did not provide specific details about where the balloon was when the photo was taken, only saying it was somewhere over the Central Continental United States.
The next day, the balloon was shot down over the Atlantic Ocean. It took nearly two weeks for recovery crews to salvage all the debris from the 200-foot balloon, which had a payload the size of a small bus that was capable of gathering intelligence as it soared 60,000 feet over the United States.
Three other objects were also shot down over the U.S. and Canada, but officials have said those objects were unrelated to the Chinese spy balloon and were likely weather or research balloons operated by private individuals or groups. Efforts to recover the debris off the coast of Alaska and from the depths of Lake Huron have been called off, while Canadian officials still hope to recover the object shot down over the Yukon.