MIAMarc t1_j9gtixt wrote on February 21, 2023 at 9:47 PM

Reply to comment by Phyr8642 in U2 Pilot selfie with the Chinese Balloon by Mival93

Yes. We keep a few on hand for atmospheric research and also situation like what happened.

Phyr8642 t1_j9gyt70 wrote on February 21, 2023 at 10:20 PM

Huh, cool, today I learned.

[deleted] t1_j9hc9bg wrote on February 21, 2023 at 11:50 PM

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Gregory_malenkov t1_j9ix5k7 wrote on February 22, 2023 at 8:09 AM

NASA has a few that they operate for this purpose. The USAF still operates a fleet of around 30 U2s, for real-time intelligence gathering that’s just not really possible for satellites.