>>27708289You have to factor that against being halfway to space.
And also, for the first like two years it was in service, the Russians could track it, but they couldn't shoot it down.
This made them really mad.
They tried "iron clouds" which involved simply scrambling all of the aircraft in an area and flying below the U-2 in an effort to block its view.
They also tried having planes fly in a parabolic arc, up above the altitude their engines could run at, and shoot it down in the brief interval their interceptors were at the same height as the U-2.
Both of these tactics killed a number of Russians.
So yeah, imagine the thrill of being in the most closely guarded, dangerous place on the planet, taking pictures while they can do nothing to stop you.
