Project Loon's Air Balloon Was Sighted Flying on Makassar Strait

Google attempts to connect the rest of world population to the internet through the Loon Project, in which an air balloon flies within the stratosphere lining with 20 km of height above the sea level and transmits internet through 40 km-scoped Wi-Fi. Four days ago (22/3), one of those balloons was sighted near Makassar strait, between Makassar and Banjarmasin.

We received the news from @antonkurniawan, which tweeted about it at five PM. Along with the tweet were two images which displayed the location of the balloon in Indonesian map and its flight detail based on online flight schedule tracker Flightradar24.

From the information, it’s safe to say that Google is the rightful owner of the helium air balloon which has HBAL 436 as its flight code and flies at 20817 meter of height and 48 km per hour of velocity. There’s no further information on its starting point nor its destination, since Google Loon was designed to do the trip around the world using wind that blows.

Well, Google does have the algorithm which enables them to predict where their balloons are heading, which is by place them to stratosphere layers, with each of the layer heads to different direction at various pace.

The project was started in New Zealand back in 2013. 30 air balloons were released to cover uncovered areas that have yet enjoyed proper internet connection. Each and every balloon is equipped with LTE WiFi-based internet connection that may cover up to 40 km. In handling this project, Google collaborates with telecommunication operators so that their users may access the service everywhere, as long as their gadget can receive LTE signal.