Long before a hurricane reaches the evening news, it begins as a question mark over the vast stretches of the Atlantic: Where will it go, how strong will it become, and who is in its path? High Altitude Balloons (HABs) offer a new way to answer those questions earlier, closer to the storm, and farther from shore than many traditional systems can reach.
Aerostar is excited to announce its selection by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program as the high‑altitude balloon provider for the 2026–2027 NASA TechRise Student Challenge. This collaboration will enable hundreds of middle and high school students across the United States to watch the launch of their own experiments into the stratosphere—an experience designed to spark curiosity, unlock creativity, and inspire future innovators.
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.
Aerostar achieved a new world record Monday with a Thunderhead high-altitude balloon. Aerostar's HBAL684 flew 336 days, the longest continuous flight in the stratosphere by a controllable flight vehicle.
Airbus U.S. Space & Defense and Aerostar announced an expansion of their Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to include additional capabilities from Persistent Systems, LLC (“Persistent”).