The Chinese spy balloon that drifted across the US in February collected intelligence from several American military sites and transmitted the information back to Beijing in real-time — even as the Biden administration intercepted it, according to US officials.

The spy balloon made multiple passes over some key locations and was able to send Beijing the information it gathered instantaneously, two current and one former senior US administration official told NBC News.

While soaring through the sky, the balloon was able to collect intelligence from electronic signals.

Such intelligence may have included weapons systems or communications from base personnel.

The three officials told NBC that China would have been able to gain much more intelligence had the Biden administration not moved around potential targets and stopped the targeted areas from broadcasting or emitting signals.

When the balloon was shot down in February off the coast of South Carolina, Biden officials said it was equipped with antennas capable of collecting communications signals and also carried large solar panels that can run various data sensors.

China has maintained that the balloon was part of a civilian meteorological research project and just strayed off its course — claims the US State Department has called bogus.

State Department officials have said that Beijing has deployed similar balloons in more than 40 countries recently and that the balloon shot down off the US coast “was clearly for intelligence surveillance and inconsistent with the equipment onboard weather balloons.”

Officials have not said what agency in China was responsible for the spy balloon, which featured a self-destruct mechanism that could have been activated by Chinese officials. It’s unclear if it suffered a malfunction or if China chose not to self-destruct the balloon.

The balloon first entered US airspace over Alaska on Jan. 28, though the Pentagon made the official announcement of the spy aircraft on Feb. 2 when it traveled from Montana to the Carolinas. It was later shot down off the South Carolina coast on Feb. 4.

US officials tasked with cleaning up the shot-down spy-craft described the balloon as close to 200 feet tall with a payload the size of a jetliner, producing much debris that took 12 days to collect.

The Navy transported pieces of the balloon to shore, where they were then taken into custody by federal investigators and sent to the FBI Lab at Quantico, Va.

Officials hope to use the debris to learn about the balloon’s purpose and gain insight into China’s spy balloon program.