Eighty-eight hours parked in one spot over the Atlantic, and Sceye's silver bullet didn't flinch. That's the endurance number that matters for a high-altitude platform station (HAPS) meant to deliver internet from the stratosphere.
Sceye builds a 200-foot-long, helium-filled oblong craft wrapped in lightweight reflective fabric and covered in solar panels. The company plans to park one 18 kilometers above the ocean off Japan this August, where it will use a custom antenna to supplement Softbank's 5G network. Not just backhaul - direct-to-device beams.
A 200-Foot Helium-Filled Antenna Platform
The stratosphere is the sweet spot. Lower than any satellite, so signal latency and power requirements crater. But staying there is a physics problem. The craft must be light enough to float yet strong enough to carry payload. It must store enough solar energy during the day to run an electric fan all night, fighting winds that try to shove it off station.
Sceye proved that solution on a 2024 test flight. Then this spring, the company sent the same platform on a 12-day journey to the coast of Brazil, where it spent 88 consecutive hours parked in various locations. That's real station-keeping, not a hover demo.
What This Means for 5G Coverage
Softbank wants density without laying fiber or launching satellites. A HAPS covering a 100-km radius from 18 km up can serve disaster zones, rural areas, or congested urban pockets. The craft beams data straight to phones, not through a ground relay. Lower cost than LEO constellations, lower latency than GEO.
Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, Sceye's CEO, says the goal is "space-like conditions without the cost of going to space." Eventually, he expects HAPS to be as common as ships at port or trains on tracks.
If the August test works, expect more operators to place orders. The stratosphere just got a new tenant.
Source: This flying solar-powered platform could deliver better internet from the air
Domain: technologyreview.com
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