Sceye and SoftBank complete 15,000 km stratospheric connectivity test

U.S. aerospace company Sceye and SoftBank have successfully completed the ‘Service Test 1’ (ST1) mission, a trans-Pacific flight designed to demonstrate stratospheric connectivity. The mission traveled over 15,000 km from New Mexico to Japan over a 13-day period, marking Sceye’s first flight in Asia.

Operating at an altitude of approximately 16.5 km, the High Altitude Platform System (HAPS) utilized SceyeCELL technology to provide mobile broadband directly to standard smartphones. The tests confirmed the ability to handle voice calls, text messages, video streaming, and emergency alert systems. The platform also demonstrated successful communication with drones and edge computing capabilities, reducing latency to 68 ms—a 40% improvement over traditional cloud processing.

The mission serves as a milestone for the commercialization of HAPS, which aims to complement existing terrestrial networks and satellite constellations. Once fully deployed, a single HAPS unit is designed to cover an area equivalent to approximately 500 terrestrial base stations, offering a scalable solution for 6G, IoT, and disaster recovery communications.