ST. CLOUD, Minn. – A high-altitude balloon spotted over Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and then 220 miles northeast over St. Cloud was not — repeat, not –another Chinese surveillance craft. The air traffic tracking site FlightAware reported the balloon was Loon 618, also called  HBAL618 — a domestic weather forecast vehicle. There were visual similarities from the ground to the Chinese spy balloon that crossed the continent a week earlier before U.S. fighter jets shot it down. Like the China spy balloon, Loon 618 floated through the upper stratosphere, about 65,000 feet, but Loon 618’s path was less controlled. Observers described it as “swirling” above Worthington in southwest Minnesota. After passing St. Cloud. Loon 618 began a descent and was expected to land probably in Minnesota or Wisconsin in a few hours.

Loon schematic.

Tethered Loons. In hangar for testing.

Loon in flight. The 618 balloon carried a radio transmitter so it could be tracked by air controllers. This FlightAware screen shot shows St. Cloud as a a\green dot.Other ground statins are white. Flights in progress are white with their paths indicated. Loon 618 is in yellow and shaped, you guessed it, like a balloon.

Google’s costly ill-timed Loon concept

Google saw opportunity in using balloons to provide internet access to rural and remote areas, It was called Project Loon. Short for “balloon”: Get it? Get it? The idea was a global wireless network with thousands of balloons floating about 60,000 feet. Beginning in 2011 Google built several hundred  prototype Loons  with high-tech gear to test the how internet signals could be uploaded to balloons from earth stations and relayed from balloon to balloon in the stratosphere and then down to paying consumers on the ground. Using data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and weather services in other countries. The experimental balloons were maneuvered to adjust their altitude and location to find suitable wind layers that would work. There were tests in the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Kenya New Zealand, Panama, Peru, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Uruguay. Google abandoned the project in 2018 as financially infeasible and sold the venture. Among the reasons: Quantum improvements in cable and antenna broadband systems had eclipsed any need for the  complex Loon balloon system. Also were obstacles in revising international broadcast spectrum allocations to create room for Loon signals.