U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Missouri: How we know that

Re:U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Misso... by lightedman on Friday February 24, 2023 @08:14PM (#34932682)

"surely a satellite does what this does but better?"

Nope, which is why Google and Apple pay heavily for on-the-ground recording and aerial photography for their maps.

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Re:U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Misso... by micromacrofoot on Friday February 24, 2023 @08:53PM (#34932949)

yeah but this balloon wasn’t doing sunny day photo flybys, it was up in the stratosphere and couldn’t even be controlled predictably

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Re:U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Misso... by mardifoufs on Friday February 24, 2023 @10:21PM (#34933496)

They also don't have access to spy satellite tech though.

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Re:U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Misso... by kube-system on Friday February 24, 2023 @11:12PM (#34933822)

Any camera that takes a good picture from 500 miles away takes a better picture from 12 miles away.

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Re:U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Misso... by ClumsyPilot on Saturday February 25, 2023 @12:08PM (#34938252)

Have you seen what civilian imaging satellites look like? They have giant optics the size of a bus. Look at Worldview 3

Even optics 1/10 the size of Worldview would be massive, and this baloon has nothing like it.

What is it using, a GoPro?

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