Project Articles & Events
Google Project Loon
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Feb. 17, 2014 – News4Nevada – “Google’s Project Loon comes to town” #
April 17, 2014 – PCWorld “Exclusive: Google’s Project Loon tests move to LTE band in Nevada” #
May 12, 2014 – Federal Communications Commission Experimental Special Temporary Authorization #
Aug. 5, 2014 – Winnemucca City Council Minutes “License Agreement / Airport Industrial Park / Google”
Aug. 5, 2014 – Federal Aviation Administration Notice of Proposed Construction or Alteration on Airport for 40’ AGL Temporary Structure
Aug. 7, 2014 – News4Nevada “Google, city sign license agreement”
March 2015 – Angier+Fox, Celebrating Rural America “2015 Project Loon”
April 20, 2015 – Business Insider “Look inside a Google project so odd, It’s literally called ‘Project Loon’” #
Sep. 8, 2015 – Winnemucca City Council Minutes “License Agreement Amendment / Airport Industrial Park / Google”
Sept. 15, 2015 – News4Nevada “Google is tripling its footprint in Winnemucca”
Nov. 24, 2015 – PCWorld “Google’s Internet-spreading Project Loon balloons now fly for three months straight” #
Nov. 25, 2015 – Business Insider “Google is about to test something secretive across all of the US – and it sounds exactly like its Project Loon balloons” #
Nov. 26, 2015 – Inverse Innovation “Google’s Project Loon Possibly Launches in Nevada” #
Feb. 29, 2016 – Digital Trends “Here’s how Google will launch its Project Loon Internet balloons” #
June 7, 2016 – Winnemucca City Council Minutes “NV Energy Underground Utility Easement / Municipal Airport” (Google expanding)
June 15, 2016 – Fortune “New Lawsuit May Deflate Google’s Big Internet Balloon Project” #
Oct. 26, 2016 – Federal Aviation Administration Notice of Proposed Construction or Alteration on Airport for 90’ AGL Gantry Crane
Dec. 5, 2016 – Aerospace America “Expanding Reach, Capabilities of Balloon Systems” #
Dec. 8, 2016 – Bloomberg “Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline – Until Now” #
Jan. 27, 2017 – Mayuresh Darokar & Dhiraj Astonkar, International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) 4. 659-662 “Provide High Altitude Networking by using Project Loon”
Feb. 16, 2017 – Android Authority “Google’s Project Loon can now use fewer balloons to offer internet access” #
Feb. 16, 2017 – Bloomberg “Why There’s Fewer Balloons for Google’s Project Loon” #
April 27, 2017 – Technology Breaking News “Will Balloons Lift Google’s Wireless Aspirations?” #
May 17, 2017 – BBC News “Google owner Alphabet balloons connect flood-hit Peru” #
May 26, 2017 – Light Reading “Oh, the Huge Manatee! Google’s US Loon Tests Renewed Into 2020” #
July 21, 2017 – Federal Aviation Administration Notice of Proposed Construction or Alteration on Airport for 149’ AGL Vertical Balloon Launch Post
Aug. 8, 2017 – Winnemucca City Council Minutes “Airport Launch Area Expansion Proposal / Google”
Sept. 1, 2017 – Business Insider “Alphabet, which used to be Google, has created XXVI — a new holding company for all the ‘other bets’” #
Sept. 4, 2017 – Tech Crunch “Google parent Alphabet forms holding company, XXVI, to complete 2015 corporate reorganization” #
Sept. 18, 2017 – Fact Company “Can we build a global internet company from swarms of satellites and tech-company-backed balloons?” #
Sept. 21, 2017 – CNBC “Astro Teller of Alphabet’s X says the company’s business and the global good are ‘actively well-aligned’” #
Sept. 23, 2017 – Lanka News Web “Google’s Loon Project” #
Sept. 25, 2017 – CNET “Alphabet internet balloons could talk to your phone in 2019” #
Sept. 25, 2017 – Mobile World Live “Project Loon head insists balloons will make bucks” #
Sept. 26, 2017 – Startlr Tech “The project of Internet balloons Google Loon will enter the commercial market in 2019” #
Oct. 2, 2017 – Mobile World Live “Alphabet eyes Project Loon to connect Puerto Rico” #
Oct. 6, 2017 – Federal Aviation Administration approves construction of 149’ AGL vertical balloon launch post at Google’s Project Loon base in Winnemucca, Nevada.
Oct. 6, 2017 – Federal Communications Commission Application for Special Temporary Authority and Exhibit – Special Temporary Authority Justification
Oct. 7, 2017 – Federal Communications Commission grants Experimental License for Project Loon to operate in Puerto Rico
Oct. 8, 2017 – IT Gurus of Atlanta “Project Loon – Internet and Phone Access without Towers or Cables!”
Oct. 9, 2017 – ARS Technica “Alphabet’s internet balloons will try to restore cell service in Puerto Rico”
Oct. 12, 2017 – Business Insider “Alphabet quietly made its experimental balloon project a full-fledged corporation – a first step to a new Google spinout”
Oct. 17, 2017 – Android Headlines “Project Loon is still with X, Alphabet’s Unit Says”
Oct. 19, 2017 – Recode “The super-secret Google X lab has hired its own lobbyists in the nation’s capital”
Oct. 21, 2017 – Digital Journal “Alphabet’s Project Loon officially launched in Puerto Rico”
Nov. 9, 2017 – Project Loon “Launches for Puerto Rico from Winnemucca, Nevada”
Dec. 20, 2017 – Devex “How to achieve internet for all: What we learned in 2017”
Dec. 30, 2017 – Citizen Digital “Internet balloon falls from the sky in Meru” Kenya, East Africa, Daily Nation
Jan. 3, 2018 – Business Daily “Farmer threatens to slap Google with suit over balloon crash”
Feb. 27, 2018 – Quartz – “New hints that Alphabet might spin-off Project Loon…”
March 8, 2018 – IEEE Spectrum “How Project Loon Built the Navigation System That Kept Its Balloons Over Puerto Rico”
March 12, 2018 – IT Jungle “As I see it: Homo Digitalis”
April 24, 2018 – Eureka “Why Elon Musk will win the race for space-based internet”
June 29, 2018 – Live Science “At This Lab, ‘Mad Scientists’ Are Making Outlandish Tech a Reality”
July 5, 2018 – Reuters “Kenya to use Alphabet’s balloons for rural internet”
July 11, 2018 – Kopitiam Bot “Project Loon, Wing graduate from X to become latest Alphabet companies” and Wired “Inside X, the Moonshot Factory racing to build the next Google”
July 19, 2018 – Alastair Westgarth, CEO of Loon “Bringing Loon to Kenya” and Ars Technica “Project Loon signs its first deal for Internet-delivering balloons—in Kenya”
Aug. 28, 2018 – Chimp Reports “Uganda to use Balloons to extend Internet to rural areas”
Aug. 29, 2018 – Fierce Wireless “Loon files to test balloons over Winnemucca using LTE bands 20, 28”
Sept. 11, 2018 – Salvatore Candido, Principal Engineer, Head of Engineering at Loon “1 connection, 7 balloons, 1,000 kilometers”
Sept. 18, 2018 – Ecologística Perú video “Project Loon – First Recovery”
Sept. 22, 2018 – WHO News Radio 1040 Saturday Morning Live “Is This Iowa Solar Company Working With Google?”
Oct. 30, 2018 – Axios “Scoop: Executive accused of harassment at Alphabet ‘X” unit is out”; The New York Times “Alphabet Executive Resigns After Harassment Accusation”; The New York Times “How Google Protected Andy Rubin, the Father of Android”; ARS Technica “Google CEO: We need to take a much harder line on inappropriate behavior”
Oct. 31, 2018 – News 4 Nevada “Balloons deliver Internet from Winnemucca to around the world”
Nov. 14, 2018 – Business Day “Kenya approves Loon’s plan to provide internet from balloons”; Telecoms “Google’s Loon is actually starting to look like a genuine business”
Dec. 5, 2018 – Quartz “Alphabet’s plan to bring the internet to the world is ready for the next level”
Dec. 13, 2018 – Salvatore Candido, Principal Engineer, Head of Engineering at Loon “Improving Wind Forecasts in the Lower Stratosphere”
Jan. 3, 2019 – IEEE Spectrum “Loon’s Balloons Will Fly Over Kenya in First Commercial Telecom Tryout”
Jan. 15, 2019 – Alastair Westgarth, CEO of Loon “Introducing the Loon Advisory Board”
Jan. 31, 2019 – Salvatore Candido, Principal Engineer, Head of Engineering at Loon “The connectivity brain behind Loon’s network”; The Verge “Alphabet’s Loon Sets Its Sights on the Satellite Industry”; Telesat
Feb. 7, 2019 – BLM Notice of Proposed Action in Wilderness Areas – Project Loon Balloon Removal
Feb. 26, 2019 – BLM Notice of Proposed Action – Purdue Orbital Launch and Loon LLC Balloon Recovery EA and Purdue Orbital Launch and Loon LLC Balloon Recovery Environmental Assessment
March 25, 2019 – Wilderness Watch “Comment on the Purdue Orbital Launch and Loon LLC Balloon Recovery Environmental Assessment (EA) and its associated Minimum Requirements Decision Guide (MRDG)”
March 25, 2019 – NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office “Using Loon Stratospheric Balloon Observations in Global Assimilation”
April 24, 2019 – Bloomberg “SoftBank Unit Invests $125 Million in Google’s Loon Balloons” and Loon Blog “Alphabet’s Loon and SoftBank’s HAPSMobile form strategic relationship to advance high altitude network connectivity”
May 28, 2019 – All Africa “Africa: Who brings the Internet to Africa’s Remote Regions?”
May 29, 2019 – Fierce Wireless “Loon offers service in Peru after earthquake” and Alastair Westgarth, CEO of Loon “Loon balloons are now connecting users in Peru”
June 30, 2019 – Reuters “Google internet balloon spinoff Loon still looking for its wings”
July 23, 2019 – Salvatore Candido, Principal Engineer, Head of Engineering at Loon “1 Million Hours of Stratospheric Flight”
Sept. 6, 2019 – ICAO – The International Civil Aviation Organization “A40 SkyTalks: Harnessing the Stratosphere to Connect People Everywhere by Loon”
Oct. 1, 2019 – Google Project Loon Market: Industry Innovative Growth with SWOT Analysis and Forecast-2022
Oct. 29, 2019 – Andina “Loon wishes to offer internet connection through balloons in Peru’s rural areas”
Nov. 21, 2019 – Telefonica “Loon and Internet para todos sign contract to bring balloon-powered Internet to Telefónica customers in Perú” and Medium, Loon for All “Loon Signs Deal to Bring Balloon-Powered Internet to Amazon Rainforest Region in Peru”
Dec. 3, 2019 – Reuters “Google co-founders step aside as Pichai takes helm of parent Alphabet” and New York Times “This signals a shift away from the more fringy efforts – like Project Loon – and more towards a company focused on technology that makes money”
Dec. 8, 2019 – Spring Hill Insider “Alphabet’s ‘Loon’ Internet Plan Closer To Deployment”
Dec. 9, 2019 – Daily Monitor “Uganda to get floating telecom masts”
Feb. 13, 2020 – Fierce Wireless “Loon poses modest impact on terrestrial LTE: study”
Feb. 18, 2020 – Fierce Wireless “Loon keeps secrets under wraps while applying for market trial in Puerto Rico”
Feb. 21, 2020 – Financial Post “Global telcos join Alphabet, SoftBank’s flying cellphone antenna lobbying effort”
March 23, 2020 – Alastair Westgarth, CEO of Loon “Loon’s internet balloons approved to fly in Kenya”
April 21, 2020 – Salvatore Candido, Principal Engineer, Head of Engineering at Loon “Take Me To Kenya – How Loon Balloons Reach the Kenyans Who Need Connectivity”
April 29, 2020 – Loon for All “HAPS Alliance Members Outline Commercial Opportunity in Earth’s Stratosphere”
May 5, 2020 – Alastair Westgarth, CEO of Loon “Working with AT&T to offer a global connectivity solution in times of disaster”
May 5, 2020 – Capital News “Internet balloons will boost Kenya’s counter-terrorism war”
May 8, 2020 – Inverse “Loon: How a weird Google project finally went legit with an AT&T deal”
May 12, 2020 – Alastair Westgarth, CEO of Loon “Bringing Loon to Mozambique”
June 18, 2020 – Loon “Loon Overview and Technological Advancements”
July 6, 2020 – Alastair Westgarth, CEO of Loon “Loon is live in Kenya”
Aug. 18, 2020 – Android Police “Google asks FCC for permission to do some mysterious 6GHz testing”
Oct. 28, 2020 – Venture Beat “Alphabet’s Loon claims stratospheric flight record of 312 days”
Jan. 21, 2021 – Alastair Westgarth, CEO of Loon “Saying goodbye to Loon – Loon’s journey is coming to an end. Thank you to everyone who believed in us and our mission of connecting people everywhere.”
Jan. 22, 2021 – The New York Times “Google-Linked Balloon Project to Provide Cell Service Will Close” and Tech Central “Vodacom pulls plug on Internet balloons project”
Jan. 27, 2021 – Argus Leader “‘We look at it as a massive success’: Scrapped Raven-Google project shows promise, officials say” and Mobile World Live “Intelligence Brief: End of Loon highlights economic issues”
Jan. 28, 2021 – Nevada News Group “Loon announces project end”
May 1, 2021 – Australian Financial Times “Google vs the Loonatics: the search group comes down to earth”
Silicon Valley Disposition to auction Loon equipment:
- May 11, 2021 – Loon Inventory & Materials Global Online Auction
- May 18, 2021 – Loon Launch Station Global Online Auction
- June 8, 2021 – Loon Warehouse Assets #2 Global Online Auction
May 1, 2021 – Puerto Rico Posts “Ports begins the Information Request process to establish an aerospace port in Ceiba”
May 13, 2021 – Silicon Valley Business Journal “Loon will start laying off 151 employees this summer as Alphabet winds down one of Google’s X projects”
May 28, 2021 – The Mercury News “Alphabet moonshot Loon is jolted by layoffs – but employees are finding jobs with tech titan”
Aug. 1, 2021 – Loon Library “Lessons from Building Loon’s Stratospheric Communications” (437 page report)
Sept. 30, 2021 – Business Wire “Raven Industries Acquires Intellectual Property From Loon”
Sept. 30, 2021 – SoftBank “SoftBank Corp. Acquires High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) Patents from Loon”
Sept. 30, 2021 – X Company The Loon Collection – X, the moonshot factory. The Loon Collection is a compilation of lessons, data, and insights from nearly a decade of stratospheric exploration.
Desert Fog 