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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.

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.

Aerostar announces a historic achievement: 500 consecutive days of operations in the stratosphere. With high altitude balloons aloft somewhere in the world every single day from December 12, 2022 to April 25, 2024, Aerostar demonstrated persistent operations in the stratosphere and covered more than 265,936 nautical miles. With more than 2 million total flight hours in the stratosphere, successful missions over all seven continents, and single balloon flights exceeding 150 days duration, Aerostar has proven global reach and capabilities to operate in diverse environments.