ARIZONA, USA — 12News viewers have been emailing, calling and commenting, wondering what is in the sky above the Valley.
Many have noticed a balloon flying tens of thousands of feet in the air, and it turns out there are two of them.
By Tuesday afternoon, one balloon flew near Florence, and another was spotted near the San Carlos Reservation.
The two red balloons on the graphic below designate where the balloons are located.
The FAA directed 12News to Aerostar, an aerospace and defense company, which confirmed the balloons belonged to them.
A spokesperson for the company provided 12News with the following statement:
"As the world leader in stratospheric technology, Aerostar launches up and safely operates up to 200 flights every year. Based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Aerostar flies balloon systems all over the US and to locations around the world. Our balloons are equipped with transponders and we coordinate closely with the FAA and local authorities so that surrounding air traffic can follow our location.
I won’t provide details about individual flight campaigns but generally speaking, our flights test communications systems, sensors, and navigation control in the stratosphere."
Clayton Jacobs is the president of Arizona Near Space Research, which helps students develop scientific equipment and launch it in a high-altitude balloon. He said his friends reached out with questions about the balloons, too.
“As long as we've been experimenting with space, we've been using balloons in order to get up higher in our atmosphere," Jacobs said.
Aerostar's website states the company has worked with NASA, Google, and the Air Force.
“It's probably some kind of Earth observation technology that a scientist or engineers or are interested in; it could be radio related, some kind of transmitter or receiver," Jacobs said.
As of Tuesday, the two balloons were at over 60,000 feet. So what about when it is time for them to come down?
“The chance for somebody to be hit is lower than having a car accident," said Dr. Xubin Zeng, a professor at the University of Arizona's Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences.
Zeng said one of the reasons companies turn to balloons is because they are far cheaper than satellites.
“For satellite missions, you talk about tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars," Zeng explained.
So for anyone still unsettled about the unusual sighting in the sky?
“As long as we can, you know, track these objects that are that large in size, and we know where they are, then there's really nothing to worry about," Jacobs said.
The call signs for both balloons are HBAL624 and HBAL625.
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