Project Loon

High-altitude platform stations (HAPS) are effective tools for communication and surveillance because they operate from the stratosphere, much closer to earth than satellites. But how do they stay on track?

Project Loon may have been deflated, but its legacy lives on in Project Taara. The team has salvaged the technology to deliver internet connectivity with lasers, demonstrating the viability in a test between two cities separated by the Congo River.

Google’s parent company Alphabet has decided to ground a venture aimed at bringing internet connectivity to remote corners of the globe through stratospheric balloons, announcing today that its Project Loon will be winding down.

An internet-beaming balloon has broken a flight record, staying aloft in the stratosphere for 312 days straight. Developed and launched by Loon, the balloon circumnavigated the globe for 10 months, demonstrating the resilience of the network.

After a long series of test runs and stints serving disaster-struck populations in Puerto Rico and Peru, Alphabet’s internet-beaming Project Loon balloons have taken on their first commercial task, providing thousands with connections in Kenya.

​When Hurricanes Maria and Irma tore through Puerto Rico last month, Alphabet's X lab was quick to answer the call. Following a successful launch, its internet-beaming balloons have now been switched on and are already providing hard hit parts of the population with connectivity.

​​Project Loon is an audacious concept dreamt up in Google's secretive X lab to connect remote regions of the world through high-flying communications balloons. Now headed up by Google's parent company, Alphabet, the balloons have been green-lighted to take flight over Puerto Rico.

A new blog post by Alphabet's "captain of moonshots" describes a big advance in the software that powers the ambitious Project Loon, allowing the team to better direct their internet-beaming balloons to regions in need. ​

Earlier this year, it was revealed that Sri Lanka would become the first country in the world to receive universal I​nternet access via Google's high altitude balloons. Now, the firm has announced that Indonesia will be the next country in which Project Loon will take flight.

The government of the island nation of Sri Lanka has just announced a partnership with Google that will bring affordable high-speed internet access to every inch of the country using the company's Project Loon balloons.