Aerostar Thunderhead Balloon System Breaks World Record for Stratospheric Flight Duration
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sioux Falls, S.D. (March 26, 2025)
Aerostar International, LLC achieved a new world record Monday with a Thunderhead high-altitude balloon. At 336 days, the conclusion of Aerostar’s HBAL684 flight on March 24, 2025, marks the longest continuous flight in the stratosphere by a controllable flight vehicle.
Navigational stratospheric balloons provide many of the benefits of satellites or aircraft, but at a dramatically lower cost per flight hour for persistent sensing or resilient communications. “Once launched, Thunderhead’s ongoing costs are minimal – the longer a single system lasts, the lower the cost per flight hour. Aerostar’s Thunderhead operates semi-autonomously using rechargeable solar power, providing critical services such as wildfire detection, maritime traffic monitoring, direct-to-handset cellular, or resilient tactical data links,” remarked Russ Van Der Werff, Aerostar’s Vice President of Stratospheric Solutions.
Aerostar launched HBAL684 from Okeechobee, Florida at 8:32 AM UTC on April 22, 2024. Navigated by operators using Aerostar’s machine-learning enabled wind models and Thunderstorm software, HBAL 684 travelled more than 80,500 nautical miles from Florida to the Caribbean, Northwest to the Midwest, west to the Islands, southeast to the coast of Mexico, continued south across the Equator, to the South Pacific.
Jim Nelson, Aerostar’s President, commented “This milestone is a testament to our unwavering commitment to our mission—connecting, protecting, and saving lives. We celebrate this achievement with the entire Aerostar team, our dedicated mission partners, and our customers across the commercial and defense industries. Congratulations to all!”
Thunderhead Balloon Systems have made long duration and navigational stratospheric missions a proven reality. By leveraging directional wind patterns at high altitudes, Aerostar's Thunderhead Balloon Systems offer groundbreaking capabilities for navigation and persistence. For more information: aerostar.com/products/balloons-airships/thunderhead-balloons
About Aerostar
With nearly 70 years of lighter-than-air innovation and expertise and two million flight hours in the stratosphere, Aerostar is dedicated to connecting, protecting, and saving lives. Aerostar launches up and safely operates hundreds of flights every year in full contact with the FAA and regional authorities. Headquartered in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Aerostar provides world-leading solutions in the aerospace and defense market, focused on stratospheric balloon systems and radar solutions. Learn more at www.aerostar.com
For Media Inquiries:
Anastasia Quanbeck
Director of Culture and Communications
Aerostar International, LLC
anastasia.quanbeck@aerostar.com
605-910-4853
