A pair of weather balloons will be launched from North Hawaii this week, and residents are advised to not be alarmed.
Two aerospace companies — Sierra Nevada Corporation and World View Enterprises — plan to launch a pair of balloons from the northern part of the Big Island between today and Saturday, weather permitting.
The balloons will ascend into the stratosphere up to between 70,000 feet and 90,000 feet, where they will demonstrate “uncrewed stratospheric communication capabilities,” according to a statement from the county.
They will drift east for 4,000 miles over the course of roughly 60 days, until they eventually land on the East Coast of the mainland, where they will be recovered.
“Due to recent national concerns surrounding stratospheric balloons, the county hopes to alleviate any confusion or misrepresentation of these balloons as they’re launched,” read the county statement Wednesday, referring to a series of incidents earlier this year where various high-altitude objects were spotted in U.S. airspace, the first of which was determined to be operated by China.