What is That? White Balloon Seen Over Anchorage

Mysterious Object Over Alaska Identified as Domestic Balloon

A strange object that was seen floating miles above Southcentral Alaska on Tuesday has now been identified as a domestic balloon. The spherical-looking object appeared in the clear skies over the city on Tuesday morning, sparking curiosity and questions about its origin.

The National Weather Service told Alaska’s News Source that it did not belong to them and could not confirm what the object was. Reports of the object came in from various locations, including the Anchorage hillside and Eagle River.

FlightRadar24, a website that tracks real-time flights of registered aircraft, showed a “high altitude balloon” at roughly 66,000 feet in the atmosphere—higher than most commercial jets. The registration number on the object listed it as belonging to Aerostar, a company based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, that uses “stratospheric balloon technology.”

According to the company’s webpage, its “lighter-than-air” technology has been used by NASA, Google, the U.S. Air Force, and others. When contacted for comment, officials with Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson explained that a special operation known as Arctic Edge 2025 was underway to help strengthen Arctic security, and that the public could expect to hear and see more air traffic.

A JBER official told Alaska’s News Source that the high-altitude balloon was launched from the Malemute Drop Zone near Eagle River by Aerostar. The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) also released information last week stating that Arctic Edge 2025 will be active in Alaska through the month of August.

Alaska’s News Source spoke with Russ Vanderweff, the vice president of Stratospheric Solutions, who explained what the balloon is and its capabilities. He described the device as a Thunderhead High-Altitude balloon, which is designed to fly for extremely long distances. The company recently set the world record of 336 days of sustained flight.

The balloon works similarly to a hot air balloon but can be controlled remotely using gas canisters attached to it. The company has seen increased demand for its product and has showcased it to organizations like NASA and Google.

“We did a demonstration flight with NASA and the National Interagency Fire Center last year, where we were providing LTE cellular coverage to people, firefighters, cell phones in the field, and then the sensing in that case was an infrared camera so they could monitor the spread of the fire in real time and have that information available on their phone,” Vanderweff said, explaining how the technology has evolved.

“Over the last 15 years or so... we started working with Google on Project Loon. They were using balloons to provide cellular coverage in sub-Saharan Africa and rural South America and other places where there was no other alternative.”

JBER also mentioned that Arctic Edge 2025 is a NORAD and US-NORTHCOM-led Arctic-readiness exercise that “also conducts Joint and Service-level experimentation and technology demonstrations in the Arctic.”

“Resolute Force Pacific, RED FLAG-Alaska 25-3, Arctic Edge and Northern Edge will create more noise for surrounding communities and the Joint Pacific-Alaska Range Complex,” the base said in a prepared statement.

This is a developing story. Check back for more updates as we learn more about it.