On Monday, Sept. 2, residents of the Castle Country Area looked to the sky and were met with a strange sight; a massive white balloon floating through the air. This brought to mind memories of last year’s Chinese Spy Balloon saga which gripped the nation. This led me to wonder, what was this balloon? And what purpose did it serve? To answer that question we went right to the source, World View Enterprises.
We reached out to Phil Wocken, the vice president of marketing and communications for World View via email to find out more about what this balloon was. Firstly he explained that the balloon is what they call a Stratollite, which he explained is,” a series of big stratospheric balloons to lift payloads into and navigate across the stratosphere.”
This technology is several centuries old, but Wocken explained World View,” has some unique technological advancements that allow us to navigate the stratosphere.”
We asked Wocken if these balloons were commercially available and could be used by outside groups, to which he responded,” Only a handful of companies in the world manufacture these types of balloons. A couple of companies sell them to other companies or organizations (like NASA) that then launch and operate the balloons. We are both a manufacturer and an operator, which means we do not sell the balloons we manufacture; we only manufacture what we fly.”
As for what these balloons do, Wocken explained that there are a few types of missions that can be flown using the Stratollites. “They have many, many use cases across the world. These high-altitude platform missions fall into one of two buckets: free-float missions and altitude-control missions. Free-float missions are simpler systems that generally last anywhere from 3-12 hours.” explained Wocken,” Altitude-control missions are typically longer-duration missions that can last for 30-45 days (or longer) and use advanced technology to “steer” in the stratosphere by adjusting the balloon’s altitude and catching different winds at different altitudes.”
“But what is the purpose behind these missions?” You may find yourself asking much as I did, luckily when asked Wocken walked me through some of the different purposes these missions can serve,” positive use cases we support include measuring methane emissions from oil and gas operations to identify harmful methane leaks, monitoring wildfire activity or hot spots via sophisticated infrared sensors that provide first responders with early detection and 24/7 monitoring capabilities, or providing U.S. Department of Defense (and other U.S. allies) intelligence capabilities to assist their national security and communications efforts (similar to how satellite technology is used).”
One main concern shared on platforms like Facebook by residents of the Castle Country Area was that this balloon would be used to spy on and monitor the citizens of Eastern Utah and America as a whole. We asked Wocken if this was the case to which he responded,” World View adheres to strict operating protocols to ensure that our technology is “used for good.” For example, this current mission is carrying a payload from a research team at NASA that is measuring solar radiation in the stratosphere above the 40th parallel.” Wocken continued,” In other words, no, we do not use our technology in nefarious ways like spying on U.S. citizens. There are so many other, more productive uses for our technology that help our company do good for the planet and its people, we focus our efforts there.”
Mining with KOAL is a new investigative journalism series from Castle Country Radio. For suggestions or tips email news@koal.net.