On the morning of August 9, 2026, a silver stratospheric airship rose out of the New Mexico desert and set off across the Pacific. About a month later it was back over New Mexico, after a round trip to Japan of nearly 30,000 kilometers (about 18,600 miles) and a week spent working as a cell tower above the Japanese coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The uncrewed craft belongs to Sceye, an aerospace company based in Moriarty, New Mexico, and the mission, called Service Test 1 (ST1), was flown with the Japanese carrier SoftBank Corp. Over Japan, ordinary smartphones on the ground used it for calls, text messages and video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Groundbreaking and historic only begin to describe our ST1 flight,” said Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, founder and CEO of Sceye, in the company’s September 9 announcement<\/a>. “This mission proved not only that our technology, vehicle systems, payload, and operational infrastructure are ready for connectivity services, but also that the stratosphere is where the future non-terrestrial infrastructure lies.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n SoftBank says the airship took about 13 days to cross more than 15,000 kilometers (9,300 miles) and entered Japanese airspace on August 23. It was back over the continental United States on September 4 and ended the mission near Sceye’s headquarters the next day with what the company calls “a planned termination and descent.”<\/p>\n\n\n\nA month above the Pacific<\/h2>\n\n\n\n