High speed, internet balloons developed by Google’s parent company, Alphabet, have been spotted in the Kenyan airspace.
According to StratoCat, the balloon christened HBA092, and already above the centre of Kenya’s airspace arrived March 30. “It was launched from Puerto Rico on January 25, 2020.”
April 1,HBAL092, and HBAL125 arrived in Kenya.
#HBAL092 is the first #ProjectLoon balloon to enter Kenyan airspace since the announcement of the go-ahead for the project.
It was launched from Puerto Rico on January 25, 2020 pic.twitter.com/FmcOKwDxif
— StratoCat (@stratoballoon) March 30, 2020
It crossed above Somalia from the Indic and now is moving westbound at 64.000 kft of altitude.
“While #HBAL092 (red) spent last hours wandering south of #Nairobi, the second balloon of the fleet arrived to #Kenya: #HBAL125 (blue). It crossed above Somalia from the Indic and now is moving westbound at 64.000 kft of altitude.,’’ StratoCat, a space monitoring website tweeted.
While #HBAL092 (red) spent last hours wandering south of #Nairobi, the second balloon of the fleet arrived to #Kenya: #HBAL125 (blue).
It crossed above Somalia from the Indic and now is moving westbound at 64.000 kft of altitude.#ProjectLoon pic.twitter.com/1IJEG7Lqg3
— StratoCat (@stratoballoon) April 1, 2020
President Uhuru Kenyatta said the project had been approved to commence as part of a “raft of measures to mitigate the disruptions to our life arising from the pandemic”.
“Additionally, this development will also enable Telkom Kenya Ltd (TKL) and Google Loon to start the commercial rollout of a 4G data network in the country as soon as the balloons are available on the Kenyan airspace. Therefore, all Kenyans, wherever they are in our Country, will enjoy access to high-speed and affordable internet services,” President Kenyatta had said.
What is Loon
Loon is a network of balloons traveling on the edge of space, delivering connectivity to people in unserved and underserved communities around the world.
Loon’s solution works by beaming Internet connectivity from these ground stations to a balloon 20km overhead.
From there, the signal can be sent across multiple balloons, creating a network of floating cell towers that deliver connectivity directly to a user’s LTE-enabled device below.
How It Works
High-speed internet is transmitted up to the nearest balloon from the telecommunications partner (in this case, Telkom) on the ground, relayed across the balloon network, and then back down to users on the ground.
