West Texas UFO Moment Explained: Urban Sky's Stratospheric Balloon Test
- A West Texas “UFO” moment was explained as a stratospheric balloon from Urban Sky, used for systems testing rather than extraterrestrial activity. - Flight details: launched near San Luis, Colorado; about 9.5 hours aloft at roughly 49,000 feet, traveling about 600 miles, and landing ~10 miles south of Sanderson. When fully expanded, the balloon measured about 9 feet in diameter and nearly 40 feet long; the payload weighed under 4 pounds. - Purpose: testing a new avionics suite and updated command-and-control systems, with minor design modifications; described as a systems test. - Context: Urban Sky balloons typically operate at 45,000–75,000 feet and are used for defense communications, weather modeling, wildfire detection, and remote sensing. - Recovery and reaction: GPS tracked the balloon and it was recovered with help from the Terrell County Sheriff’s Office; the sheriff lightheartedly joked about “catching aliens.” - Overall takeaway: there was no secret mission or invasion; the episode fed sci-fi speculation, but it reflects routine high-altitude engineering rather than anything extraterrestrial.
Source: klaq.com
