Project Loon Balloons

[BM82557]

Loon LLC - Wikipedia


I haven't looked for them before, interesting that they all had the same squawk -

 

[RaleighGuy]

That is the assigned call sign from the FAA for High Balloon operations

 

[caphab1]

I saw 4 of these starting in NW AZ on a SE trek. What are these all about??

 

[kruser]

I saw 4 of these starting in NW AZ on a SE trek. What are these all about??

Read the link at the top of BM82557's post. It explains all.

 

[drdispatch]

I saw 4 of these starting in NW AZ on a SE trek. What are these all about??

Internet access for the rural masses.

 

[MtnBiker2005]

Only one squawk code available for that category.

4453 - High balloon operations – National Scientific Balloon Facility, Palestine TX, and other providers, some in international operations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_transponder_codes

 

[ind224]

I can see one with binoculars from Indianapolis about 46 miles to Spencer from here. Can't get a pic though. A friend in Paragon has been advised to take a look. I'm where the cursor is.

 

[Fowler]

Saw one rising in the AM on my Nest camera in NM

 

[ra7850]

Saw one rising in the AM on my Nest camera in NM

 

[royldean]

I saw one of these things "hovering" above the Philadelphia area last summer (I think) and for a couple of weeks thought it was a UFO (in the strict sense, not specifically from Glaxxon-7);. Somebody here on RR pointed me in the direction of Project Loon and sure enough there was one in the area on that day. It was weird because it stayed almost perfectly stationary for over an hour (from my perspective, at least), but at the time it was at like 50,000 feet or something like that. I guess that is normal for high altitude balloons (they sometimes hit the doldrums and appear static).

 

[ind224]

Good observation. They use the wind speeds at various altitude for steering. Yesterday I was showing 3 knots at times and it was visible for a good 2 hours seemingly stationary. Since they have an N number not a good idea to green laser them (Federal offense actually) but it would probably look very cool from the ground.

 

[zob-slantzero]

I took this picture of one of Loon Balloons on July 5th. The balloon was at 52,000 feet and the distance was right about 32 miles away from me. I used a Nikon D500 with their 200-500 lens.