Internet of Balloons
How Loon, Google’s newest sister company, uses stratospheric balloons to make the web truly worldwide.
Since 2011, Loon—which started as a Google X project—has been figuring out how to use gigantic balloons to replace networks of cell towers. Here’s how they plan to make it happen.
- Illustration by Alicia Cocchi01To launch the balloon, Loon fills its inner chamber with helium, turning something that looks like a molted snakeskin into something that looks more like an ice cream cone. The outer layer is for regular air, but it doesn't get filled up just yet.
- 02After it's released, the balloon climbs about 1,000 feet a minute, until it's 12 miles up. That's twice the cruising altitude of a commercial jet—a rarefied zone where you might spot the occasional spy plane.
- Illustration by Alicia Cocchi03As the balloon rises into thinner air, the helium expands, until the balloon is the shape of a jellyfish and the size of a tennis court.
- Illustration by Alicia Cocchi04The goal is to keep the balloon in roughly the same place, but constant wind means it's always moving.
- Illustration by Alicia Cocchi05Each balloon can provide coverage to an area of nearly 2,000 square miles, using an assortment of solar panels, antennas, and varied electronics. That makes it easier to bring the internet to places where sparse population and challenging terrain make cell-phone tower networks a nonstarter.
- Illustration by Alicia Cocchi06Since the wind is always pushing the balloon one way or another, the trick is keeping it in roughly the same place. That's why Loon uses machine learning and mountains of wind-pattern data—to figure out which air currents are headed where.
- Illustration by Alicia Cocchi07If the balloon's drifting away from where it wants to be, it knows how to find the air current that gets it back into position. And if that current happens to be a few thousand feet below, the balloon pumps air into its outer chamber; the heavier air works like ballast, weighing the whole thing down.
- Illustration by Alicia Cocchi08In partnership with multiple telecom companies, Loon plans to fly packs of balloons all over the world—spreading the gospel of connectivity from 60,000 feet up.
Alex Davies is a senior editor at Insider and the former editor of WIRED’s transportation section, where he specialized in covering autonomous and electric vehicles. He is also the author of Driven, a book chronicling the origin of and race to create the self-driving car. ... Read More
Watch SpaceX Launch NASA's Next Earth-Observing Satellites
And five communications satellites from Iridium are piggybacking on the ride.
Watch SpaceX Launch NASA’s New Planet-Hunting Mission
The TESS satellite will hitch a ride atop a Falcon 9 rocket to search out new worlds.
This Week in the Future of Cars: All About Elon
A blitz of Tesla news, plus: electric scooters, more trouble for Uber, and more arrests in Volkswagen's diesel emissions scheme.
The Engineering of Elon's Bid to Save Thailand's Cave Boys
The SpaceX and Tesla CEO's work to help the rescue operation captivated the internet and reinforced the most flattering image of Musk, as a brilliant engineer with a nose for unexpected solutions to pressing problems.
The Flint Water Crisis Is Bigger Than Elon Musk
As Elon Musk proposes water filters for Flint, the city's mayor and others outline their real needs.
Save With Our Google Workspace Promo Codes for 2025
Boost your productivity and save with exclusive Google Workspace coupons from WIRED. Get up to 14% off plans for three months, including Starter, Standard, and Plus tiers.
Your Friend Asked You a Question. Don't Copy and Paste an Answer From a Chatbot
Your friend came to you because they respect your knowledge and opinion, and outsourcing the answer to a machine is lazy and rude. Just answer them yourself.
Western Digital Promo Code: November 2025
Get 10% off your first order at Western Digital when you register your email.
Apple’s Family Sharing Helps Keep Children Safe. Until It Doesn’t
When families break down, the systems put in place to protect children online can fall apart too.
CBP Searched a Record Number of Phones at the US Border Over the Past Year
The total number of US Customs and Border Protection device searches jumped by 17 percent over the 2024 fiscal year, but more invasive forensic searches remain relatively rare.
Zohran Mamdani’s Campaign Figured Out How to Channel Fandom
Much of the content about Mamdani online hasn’t come from his campaign or the dozens of political influencers invited to cover it. It has also come from fans.
ICE Wants to Build a Shadow Deportation Network in Texas
A new ICE proposal outlines a 24/7 transport operation run by armed contractors—turning Texas into the logistical backbone of an industrialized deportation machine.