Alphabet's Loon Sets Record for Longest Stratospheric Flight

Alphabet's Loon beat its own record for stratospheric flight. One of the company's high-altitude, internet-streaming balloons spent 312 days aloft, traveling 135,000 miles and circumnavigating the globe.

Dubbed HBAL703, the balloon launched from Puerto Rico in May 2019 and spent three months providing test service to Peru before heading south. The flight system then settled over the Pacific Ocean for more than half a year, eventually landing in Baja, Mexico, where a recovery team collected it in March.

"This new duration record is exciting not because we flew one balloon for 312 days, but because it is a very visible indicator that our efforts to make all of our flight systems last longer is working," Loon Chief Technology Officer Salvatore Candido wrote in a blog announcement.

Project Loon began as a research and development project at Google X in 2011; it was officially announced in June 2013—two days before some 30 balloons were launched in New Zealand, kicking off an ongoing attempt to provide internet access to rural and remote areas.

"Since the beginning of Loon we've questioned the assumptions about how stratospheric balloons should be built, trying alternative materials, varying the recipe by which that material is seamed together, and exploring different designs," Candido explained. Not every idea works—as evidenced by one early prototype that was mistaken for a UFO.

"Our experimentation, and willingness to zag where others have zigged," Candido continued, "has uncovered some key innovations that have unlocked an ability to fly capable and long-lasting flight systems in the stratosphere." Seven years later, the product is something more akin to a high-altitude platform (HAP) than conventional stratospheric balloon.

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Loon launches balloons nearly every week, its current fleet comprising nearly 100 flight systems worldwide, each managed autonomously, with a fleet of human engineers on call 24/7. Unlike most weather balloons, which are hardly ever recovered, Loon units are collected and returned home for additional analysis.

So what exactly does a balloon do for nearly a year in the stratosphere? In this case, provide connectivity to the folks down below. But, as Candido pointed out, Loon has even more tricks up its sleeve. "We're beginning to understand that this is just scratching the surface of the opportunity presented by the stratosphere." Moving forward, longer flights would mean further reach and more opportunities to complete more jobs at less cost. "That all adds up to being able to scale our cell towers in the sky to more people and places, and continue toward our mission of connecting people everywhere," the Loon blog said.