A U-2 pilot flying excessive above the Chinese spy balloon took a close-up photograph of the massive white orb only a day earlier than the Air Force shot it down off the South Carolina coast.

The photograph reveals the highest of the pilot’s helmet contained in the U-2 cockpit with the balloon flying beneath. It was taken February 3 because the balloon “hovered over the Central Continental United States”, in accordance with the caption supplied by the Defence Department.

The Pentagon launched the picture on Wednesday, greater than two weeks after the balloon made worldwide headlines because it transited the United States.

The balloon was downed on February 4 by an F-22 fighter jet firing a AIM-9X Sidewinder missile. The strike occurred as soon as the balloon was not over land however was nonetheless inside US territorial waters.

The U-2 Dragon Lady is a excessive altitude US spy airplane that has been in service because the Fifties.

The Pentagon introduced final Friday that Navy ships and submersibles had accomplished restoration of the large balloon and its payload, which fell in items into the Atlantic Ocean.

The payload was recovered from the ocean ground and is being analysed by the FBI, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh stated on Wednesday.

The shootdown led to 3 different smaller objects additionally being shot down by Air Force jets inside a interval of eight days: one over Alaska, one over Canada and one over Lake Huron. Searches for the Alaska and Lake Huron objects have ended.