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The Chinese spy balloon incident -

In January 2023, a Chinese-operated high-altitude balloon was spotted in North American airspace. A US Air Force U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was immediately scrambled to take a closer look.

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Huge payload -

The balloon was carrying a payload the size of three coaches equipped with what American officials described as surveillance equipment. The Chinese, however, insisted the balloon was a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological purposes, and that it had veered off course.

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Shot down -

The Americans weren't buying it and on February 4 the balloon was shot down over the Atlantic Ocean by a F-22 Raptor fighter jet.

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Recovery and aftermath -

The wreckage was retrieved by US Navy personnel for transport to federal agents. It's currently being analyzed. The incident sparked a diplomatic row. It also highlighted just one of the many intelligence gathering techniques employed by governments around the world to spy on their neighbors.

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Historic spy balloon -

Interestingly, the use of a spy balloon is nothing new. On June 26, 1794, during the Siege of Maubeuge, the tethered balloon L'Entreprenant was used by the French Republican Army to observe the combined Austrian and Dutch armies. Its deployment is the first recorded use of a military observation balloon.

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Early days of air reconnaissance -

The advent of air reconnaissance during the First World War and its advanced use in later conflicts underlined the advantages of reconnoitering a theater of conflict from above.

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Launch of Sputnik 1 -

By the mid-1950s as Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union heightened, Washington ordered the official development of an advanced reconnaissance satellite. But in a hammer-blow delivered by Moscow on October 4, 1957, the Soviets successfully launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite.

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The race into space begins -

Suddenly the world became much smaller. The success of Sputnik 1 and the Soviet's subsequent launch of the Sputnik 2 spacecraft on November 3, 1957 prompted US President Dwight D. Eisenhower to fast-track the Corona program.

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The Corona Program -

The Corona Program saw the development of America's first generation of reconnaissance satellites. Between 1959 and 1972, dozens of satellites were launched into space, ostensibly to spy on the Soviet Union and China. And the Americans conceived a unique system of recovering their data. Film was delivered from orbit via a reentry capsule caught in mid-air by a passing aircraft that "snagged" the parachute lowering the payload.

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Developing the results -

Safely retrieved, the film was transported to Eastman Kodak's Hawkeye facility in Rochester, New York, where it was processed.

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Soviet Zenith Program -

The Soviets, meanwhile, were busily developing their own military photoreconnaissance satellites, a program known as Zenith.

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Satellite mishap inspires Hollywood -

The reentry capsule of Discover 2, one of the Corona satellites launched on April 13, 1959, suffered a timing error in orbit and instead of landing in Hawaii, touched down in Spitsbergen, Norway. A joint US-Norway recovery operation was mounted, but was unsuccessful. It was later feared that the capsule with its sensitive film had ended up in the possession of the Soviets. While this was never proven, the entire episode was the inspiration for the 1963 novel 'Ice Station Zebra,' by Alistair MacLean, and the 1968 film adaptation.

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The U-2 Incident -

It was during a surveillance flight deep inside Soviet territory on May 1, 1960 that a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down by Soviet jets. The U-2's pilot, Francis Gary Powers, parachuted to the ground safely, but was immediately detained by Russian security forces.

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Francis Gary Powers -

Powers subsequently stood trial. He was convicted of espionage and sentenced to three years imprisonment and seven years of hard labor. After serving less than two years, he was exchanged for Soviet intelligence officer Rudolf Abel on February 10, 1962.

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Cuban Missile Crisis -

Later in 1962, US aerial reconnaissance identified a missile launch site at San Cristobal in Cuba. The discovery of this and other Soviet missile sites across the country sparked the Cuban Missile Crisis.

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Lockheed SR-71 -

Developed as a highly classified project in the 1960s, the Lockheed SR-71, also known as the "Blackbird," was a high-altitude, Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft. The aircraft's sensor and payloads included optical/infrared imagery systems, side-looking airborne radar (SLAR), and electronic intelligence (ELINT) gathering systems.

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Flying at the edge of the world -

The Blackbird's role was eventually taken up by a combination of reconnaissance satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles. However, it remains the world's fastest and highest flying operational aircraft. Pictured is a view from the cockpit at 25,000 m (83,000 ft) over the Atlantic Ocean.

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KH-11 KENNEN -

KH-11 KENNEN is a type of reconnaissance satellite first launched by the American National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) in December 1976. KENNEN's directives, like all spy satellite missions, are highly classified. But in 1984, an image of the construction of a Soviet Kiev-class aircraft carrier was leaked to Jane's Defence Weekly.

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High definition surveillance -

In this KH-11 satellite image, the Zhawar Kili Al-Badr camp in western Afghanistan is clearly visible.

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Launch of NROL-44 -

America's NROL-44 is one of a class of US spy satellites called Orion that began service in 1995. Operated by the NRO, the NROL-44 is one of the biggest spy satellites ever built. It was launched on December 10, 2020, from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

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Vandenberg Space Force Base -

Vandenberg Space Force Base in California is home to Space Launch Delta 30, the facility responsible for all space launch operations from the west coast. Top secret military satellites are among the payloads carried into orbit by Delta rockets.

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Unmanned aerial vehicles -

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) matured in the 1980s and 1990s as advanced technology made these aircraft, often called drones, highly suitable for aerial reconnaissance. The Pioneer RQ-2A (pictured) was deployed at sea and on land from 1986 until 2007. It provided field commanders with real-time reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition, and battle damage information.

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General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper -

One of the successors to the RQ-2A is the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper. The MQ-9, seen here flying over southern Afghanistan, is the first hunter-killer UAV designed for long-endurance, high-altitude surveillance.

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Satellite Sentinel Project -

In 2010, Hollywood actor George Clooney and human rights and anti-corruption activist John Prendergast co-founded the Satellite Sentinel Project. Working with NGOs and humanitarian organizations, the project aims to prevent conflict and human rights abuses through the use of satellite imagery. The idea is to systematically monitor and report on potential hotspots and threats to human security in near real-time, thus facilitating a swift response.

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Treaty on Open Skies -

Effective from January 2002, the Treaty on Open Skies established a program of unarmed aerial surveillance flights over the entire territory of its participants, currently numbering 34 party states. In January 2021, Russia announced that it would follow the United States in withdrawing from the Treaty on Open Skies, effectively grounding aircraft such as this USAF Boeing OC-135B. Image: US Air Force

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Satellites over Ukraine -

Maxar satellite imagery of Russian military units on maneuvers in 2014 alerted NATO to President Vladimir Putin's intention of annexing the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine and the later incursion into the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Image: 2020 Maxar Technologies

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Before and after -

Throughout the war, Maxar satellite imagery has been used to determine the extent of damage inflicted by Russian forces on civilian, military, and industrial targets. This is achieved by comparing before and after photographs. Pictured is satellite imagery taken on August 1, 2022, showing a school and buildings in Bakhmutske before the start of the siege of the eastern Ukraine town. Image: 2022 Maxar Technologies

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Photographic evidence -

This is Bakhmutske on January 10, 2023. The village is totally destroyed. Image: 2022 Maxar Technologies 

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The scene from above -

Similarly, pictured on March 18, 2022 is the Ukrainian fuel storage depot at Kalynivka. Image: 2022 Maxar Technologies

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Recording the evidence -

This is the same facility ablaze in the wake of a Russian missile strike. Image: 2022 Maxar Technologies 

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Baikonur Cosmodrome -

Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome, which in fact is in Kazakhstan, remains a busy spaceport, with numerous commercial, military, and scientific missions being launched annually. Both Sputnik 1 and Vostok 1, the first human spaceflight, were launched from Baikonur.

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Tonghae satellite launching ground -

Tonghae satellite launching ground is one of North Korea's top-secret military bases. Also known as Musudan Ri, the facility additionally serves as a missile-testing site. In 1998, North Korean media reported the successful launch of the Kwangmyongsong-1 satellite. However, no independent sources have confirmed this, or that the satellite achieved orbit.

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Xichang satellite launch center -

China's Xichang satellite launch center is located in a valley roughly 86 km (53 mi) northwest of Xichang City in Sichuan Province. Operational since 1984, the facility is used to launch numerous civil, scientific, and military payloads annually. Ominously, in 2007 a test of an anti-satellite missile was launched from the center.

Sources: (Space.com) (National Geospatial Intelligence Agency) (Britannica) (Office of the Historian) (National Reconnaissance Office) (DW)

See also: Then dangerous skill of wartime aerial reconnaissance

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