Stratospheric

An unmanned Sceye airship flew from New Mexico to Japan and back, beaming mobile service to ordinary phones from the stratosphere. Still a test, but SoftBank – one of Japan's major mobile carriers – eyes commercial service in Japan from 2027.

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?

After a decade of development Aurora Flight Sciences has finally unveiled Odysseus, its full-scale, solar-powered, autonomous aircraft designed to stay in the air for months. Odysseus is scheduled for its first test flight in 2019.

Felix Baumgartner has successfully carried out a 96,640 foot parachute jump from the Red Bull Stratos balloon, landing safely after reaching Mach 0.8 during the descent.

MIT students have launched probably the cheapest off-the-shelf photographic mission ever, capturing photos of the earth from space for next to nothing