A U.S. Air Pressure pilot has a singular souvenir from the Chinese language spy balloon disaster — a selfie snapped with the machine within the background … earlier than it was shot down over the Atlantic Ocean.

The Pentagon launched new pictures Wednesday, displaying the balloon in flight on Feb. 3 — the USAF finally fired a missile on Feb. 4 to take it down. The images had been taken from the cockpit of a U-2 spy airplane, which is able to flying at an altitude of as much as 70,000 toes.

The spy balloon was reportedly floating round 40,000 toes when it was destroyed. Apparently, the brand new images present it was nonetheless over land on Feb. 3, and that the U.S. navy was retaining an in depth eye on the balloon.

U.S. officers mentioned China’s tremendous snooper was concerning the measurement of three faculty buses, and you’ll see within the pics … it had large photo voltaic panels connected to the spying gear.

President Biden mentioned he gave the order to shoot it down on Feb. 1, however navy advisors mentioned it will be finest to attend till it was over open water.