Purpose of the flight and payload description
The MICROBALLOON is a small zero-pressure balloon designed by Urban Sky an American aerospace company based in Denver, Colorado that offers services of remote sensing, communications relay, environmental monitoring and other missions in the stratosphere.
They are constructed of thin polyethylene in multiple sizes configurations: 10-gores, 12-gore and 16-gore. Each gore is a vertical panel of the balloon envelope that together give shape to the structure when inflated. The 10-gore version had a volume of 1.760 ft³, the 12-gore around 3,000 ft³, and the 16-gore approximately 7,250 ft³ when fully deployed, and each size supports different altitude and payload capabilities. Payload capacity ranges, depending on size and flight configuration, from a few kilograms up to several dozen pounds, allowing a wide range of sensors onboard. Inflated with helium, they can reach float altitudes between 40.000 ft and up to 75.000 ft depending on gas, payload mass and atmospheric conditions. Typical flight durations range from a few hours up to one and a half days.
The Microballoons are equipped with integrated avionics and control systems that allow some degree of navigability and persistence using an altitude control mechanism that can modulate buoyancy and help maintain a desired flight level or drift pattern. The onboard control is complemented with redundant termination systems, parachutes and other safety features to ensure controlled descent at the end of a mission. The design emphasizes rapid deployment and recoverability: a single operator can inflate and launch a Microballoon in under five minutes from a mobile site with minimal infrastructure (i.e. the back of a small truck) and after mission completion the system can be refurbished and reused. This reusability is a key element of Urban Skys approach to reducing the costs associated with high-altitude operations.
The company developed its own software for flight planning and trajectory modeling, using weather data and physics-based simulations to predict balloon paths and optimize launch points. The balloons are designed to carry a variety of payloads and can be customized for particular mission needs ranging from real-time wildfire monitoring with infrared cameras to broad-area high-resolution optical imaging, large-area communications relays and even atmospheric research.
Details of the balloon flight
Balloon launched on: 2/12/2026 at 14:36 UTC
Launch site: Galeton, Colorado, US
Balloon launched by: Urban Sky
Balloon manufacturer/size/composition: Zero Pressure Balloon Microballoon
Flight identification number: N19UY
End of flight (L for landing time, W for last contact, otherwise termination time): 2/13/2026 at 9:56 UTC
Balloon flight duration (F: time at float only, otherwise total flight time in d:days / h:hours or m:minutes - ): 19 h 20 m
Landing site: W of St. Francis, Kansas, US
External references
If you consider this website interesting or useful, you can help me to keep it up and running with a small donation to cover the operational costs. Just the equivalent of the price of a cup of coffee helps a lot.
