US stratospheric craft completes 9,300-mile Pacific flight to Japan in data network test

A U.S.-built high-altitude platform completed a 9,300-mile flight from New Mexico to Japan, marking Sceye's first Asia mission and a major test of its stratospheric communications system. The 13-day journey, launched Aug. 9, involved connectivity trials with SoftBank Corp. over Japan, testing text messaging, voice calls, internet access, and video streaming from roughly 10.3 miles above Earth. The aircraft also demonstrated emergency alert capabilities and a station-seeking radius as low as 3.1 miles. The mission included onboard data processing with 68-millisecond round-trip latency, over 40% faster than cloud-based systems, plus drone communication tests. Sceye positions its platforms as a middle layer between terrestrial networks and satellites, with one aircraft potentially covering an area equivalent to 500 ground towers.