DENVER ( KDVR ) – An odd-looking balloon floated across the Denver area Friday morning. While it may look mysterious, the oddly shaped white-clear orb in the sky isn’t a mystery – it’s a piece of technology similar to a weather balloon.
On Friday morning, viewers of Nexstar’s KDVR reported a strange balloon around 7:20 a.m. The station tracked it down outside of the city.
Here’s a close-up of the balloon:
According to World View Enterprises , a space exploration and technology company, the balloon is one of their Stratollite balloons, which is similar to a weather balloon. However, Phil Wocken with World View said weather balloons pop at high altitudes.
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“This is a more sophisticated system that allows us to fly and navigate in the stratosphere for days, weeks and months at a time,” said Wocken.
Wocken said the balloon was launched across northern Arizona last Saturday and it’s “carrying a payload for NASA.” It’s currently flying at 73,000 feet, which is over 30,000 feet above the commercial airspace.