Selfie from edge of space shows US pilot flying over Chinese 'spy balloon'
A US pilot managed to take a selfie with the Chinese spy balloon before it was shot down earlier this month.
You might be familiar with the balloon which was identified and tracked above American airspace earlier on, which US officials said was a 'high-altitude surveillance balloon' that originated from China.
It was first spotted over Alaska's Aleutian Islands before being seen again above Montana, and the balloon was later shot down over the Atlantic.
Officials had not wanted to bring it down over land due to the danger it posed to people on the ground, presumably falling on them from a great height and squishing them into a fine paste.
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Fighter jets were dispatched to bring the flying object down with missiles and since the initial balloon was destroyed a number of other floating objects have been blasted to bits.
However, not all of these objects are guaranteed to be spy balloons sent by China, and one of them looks quite likely to be a $12 balloon from a hobby club.
Now the US Department of Defense has released a selfie taken by a pilot who managed to fly above the original spy balloon and nab a photo with it.
The picture, which has apparently 'gained legendary status' inside the Pentagon, was taken from inside the cockpit of a U-2 spy plane that was able to get over the balloon.
It shows the unidentified pilot with their visor down flying over the very identifiable balloon, with the plane's right wing dipping down as the aircraft flies above the balloon and gets a very clear shot.
The selfie shows the balloon itself and the panels suspended below it as it flew through the skies for the last time before being shot down.
The spy balloon was said to be hovering at 60,000 feet in the air, while U-2 planes can go higher than that and fly to heights of up to 70,000 feet.
This means the U-2 plane was possibly above the Armstrong Limit, the point at which the low pressure would make a human's blood start to boil, when the pilot took the selfie.
U-2 pilots have to wear full pressure suits, the same kind that astronauts wear, to keep themselves safe at these altitudes and apparently they're safe enough to grab a selfie with a spy balloon.
Recovery efforts to fish parts of the spy balloon out of the Atlantic Ocean came to an end last Friday (17 February), with parts of the balloon recovered and now being studied to find out more about it.
Chinese authorities have claimed the balloon was a weather monitoring device which was blown off course.
Joe Harker