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Aerostar, global leader in high-altitude balloon design and manufacturing with more than 70 years of stratospheric engineering expertise, and Icarus, developer of the Apollo high altitude unmanned aircraft system (UAS) to re-establish and maintain dominance in the stratosphere, have expanded their strategic partnership to deliver a tactically deployable, unmanned stratospheric platform capability designed to meet urgent needs across the vast distances Indo-Pacific and other contested theaters.

Aerostar today announced a major operational milestone: more than three years (over 1,096 consecutive days) of continuous stratospheric operations. This achievement underscores Aerostar’s commitment to connecting, protecting, and saving lives through long-endurance, high-altitude flight. Since December 12, 2022, Aerostar has maintained uninterrupted stratospheric operations, with platforms on mission somewhere in the world every single day. Over this period, Aerostar balloons have traveled hundreds of thousands of nautical miles, contributing to more than two million flight hours in the stratosphere and demonstrating operational success across all seven continents.

Airbus U.S. Space & Defense and Aerostar announced a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between the two companies which led to successful joint Internal Research and Development (IRAD) stratospheric test flight. The test flight enabled testing of hardened communications systems suitable to support ISR sensor applications from the stratosphere. The combination of these systems enables near real-time communication and ensures operationally relevant information for critical decision-making.