The Chinese spy balloon that traversed across the continental U.S. before President Joe Biden had it shot down collected intelligence from sensitive military sites, at times doing figure eight formations to hover over certain sites according to a report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The balloon gathered intelligence from \u201cseveral\u201d military sites, despite the Biden administration insisting that measures were taken to prevent that from happening, NBC News reported<\/a> Monday, citing two current senior U.S. officials and one former senior administration official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the report, China was able to control the balloon so it could make multiple passes over some of the sites, including flying figure eight formations, and transmitting intelligence back to China in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That intelligence was mostly electronic signals from weapons systems or communications from base personnel, the officials told NBC News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI Think They\u2019re Compromised\u201d \u2014 Rep. Tim Burchett on Biden Admin\u2019s China Balloon Debacle<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The balloon first entered U.S. airspace over the Aleutian island chain in Alaska on January 28, and allegedly entered Canada before reentering the U.S. over Idaho on January 31 and flying over Malmstrom Air Force Base, home to U.S. nuclear assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The balloon first entered U.S. airspace over Alaska on Jan. 28, according to the Biden administration, which said it was tracking it as it moved. Within the next four days, the balloon was flying over Montana \u2014 specifically Malmstrom Air Force Base, where the U.S. stores nuclear assets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The balloon was not shot down until February 4 \u2014 after it had made a several day journey across the states and potentially over other sensitive military sites and exited over South Carolina to the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n President Joe Biden claimed<\/a> he ordered it shot down on February 1, but that military officials recommended said the risk from potential debris was too high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n