Sceye, an aerospace company with a background in material science and manufacturer of High-Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS), announced today that it completed a full diurnal flight in the stratosphere while staying over an area of operation. This is a critical milestone towards long-duration flights of months or years by using of solar power through daylight hours, and battery capacity enabling overnight flight through solar recharge the next morning. The HAPS launched at 7:36 AM MST on August 15th from the company's New Mexico facility and landed at 12:21 PM MST the following day after the flight test points were completed.
Today's launch furthered all key stratospheric objectives of the Sceye 2024 test program, including demonstrating diurnal flight, controlled relocation, and the ability to stay over an area of operation. The completion of these objectives will allow Sceye to initiate commercial use cases.
Sceye has completed twenty test flights, with two additional test flights planned for 2024, further maturing the platform in preparation for commercialization.
The flight carried an advanced payload suite consisting of instruments for addressing some of humanity's most critical issues: stereo-optical cameras, for creating precise elevation models used to understand disasters such as floodings and earthquakes and how to mitigate them; infrared cameras to allow for prediction and detection of wildfires and to detect methane leaks in real time, representing two significant sources of global warming. The payload also included synthetic aperture radar that allows the platform to see through clouds and observe the planet's most vital systems in any weather and time of day.
