Send any friend a storyWhile the balloon was still in the air, American U-2 surveillance planes took images of it to determine its capabilities, the department said in a statement, adding that the balloon’s equipment “was clearly for intelligence surveillance and inconsistent with the equipment on board weather balloons. officials say the Biden administration has declassified information it has gathered on the balloon that traversed the United States last week and the Chinese military’s broader balloon surveillance operations to inform the American public and allied and partner nations of China’s espionage activities. Simple cameras on balloons can produce clearer images than those on orbital satellites, and other surveillance equipment can pick up signals that do not reach the altitude of satellites