People passing through the Denver metro Friday morning spotted a strange looking, white balloon flying at high altitude above the Front Range. Social media questions about aliens, international surveillance and Balloon Boy abounded.
It turns out the balloon belongs to World View Enterprises, a space tourism and technology company based in Arizona.
According to a spokesperson for the company, the balloon is a ‘Stratollite balloon,’ a high-altitude balloon system that operates similar to a weather balloon — but the Stratollite is “much more sophisticated” in design and can be remotely navigated to certain areas. It is capable of staying aloft for days, weeks, or months at a time.
This particular balloon launched last Saturday from the company’s headquarters. A payload for NASA is onboard as part of a project for monitoring radiation levels in Earth’s atmosphere.
The balloon was last spotted above Longmont.
