Project Loon Reactivated?

Aviation Notable Activity
1

Project Loon, according to wikipedia, was dismantled in 2021. However, there’s a balloon currently over Texas, between Austin and Houstin, HBAL787 identified as a Project Loon balloon. Did someone pump new energy into this project? Alternatively, were the balloons repurposed?

2

Doing a search for HBAL 787 I found a website that gave a name for the balloon as Thunderhead HBAL 787. Searching for Thunderhead balloons, I found another website for balloons. I sent an inquiry about this balloon there and got this reply:

“Thanks for reaching out!

Project Loon did end in 2021, but Aerostar continues to use the technology we developed as part of that partnership. The majority of high altitude balloons you see flying are Aerostar designed, manufactured, and operated but some of the free ADS-B tracking sites incorrectly attribute the balloons to Project Loon. Good sleuthing! I hope you will continue to follow us online and via social media.

Best,

Anastasia“

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3

I’ve seen several of these up my way. They seem to turn their ADS-B on/off so I wind up with a bunch of short flight segments rather than one long one. The altitudes are generally above 55,000 ft. Here are the numbers I have seen for each balloon since 5/15.

+----------+----------+
| flight   | count(*) |
+----------+----------+
| HBAL717  |        3 |
| HBAL732  |       19 |
| HBAL756  |       11 |
| HBAL787  |        6 |
+----------+----------+
4

I found a good general resource for balloons. The last two on your list are shown as active there. I wonder if rather than turning ADS-B on/off that perhaps the solar panels are interfering with the signal (so it would change with the orientation of the balloon).

5

I see a couple of HBALs in the air today.

Screen Shot 2025-10-10 at 08.28.22 2
Screen Shot 2025-10-10 at 08.28.22 21466×897 481 KB

6

HBAL is generic for high altitude balloon. Loon had registration numbers that ended with an LB for Loon Balloon as in N253LB. When Loon closed in 2021 Raven Aerostar took over the majority of its equipment. They were re-registered with a TH at the end for ThunderHead. They have many balloons currently registered as

N251TH, N252TH, N253TH.

N254TH, N255TH, N256TH,

N257TH, N258TH, N259TH,

N870TH, N871TH, N872TH,

N873TH, N874TH, N875TH,

N877TH, N878TH, N879TH,

N930TH N933TH, N934TH,

N936TH, N937TH, N938TH

and N939TH.

Here is some of what they do: https://youtu.be/GPVivHixhTk?feature=shared