Sceye and SoftBank Corp. Complete Stratospheric Connectivity Demonstration in Japan, Advancing HAPS Commercialisation

The first mission in Sceye’s Service Test 1 (ST1) programme travelled over 15,000 km from New Mexico to Japan through the stratosphere, connecting via SoftBank Corp.’s core network and verifying Direct-to-Device capabilities, edge computing, and HAPS-based communication with drones.

Sceye, a US aerospace and materials science company specialising in High-Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS) for telecommunications and real-time environmental monitoring, announced today the success of the trans-Pacific Service Test 1 (ST1) flight. Travelling over 15,000 km in the stratosphere over 13 days, ST1 demonstrated mobile broadband connectivity to unmodified devices through SoftBank Corp.’s core network upon arrival in Japanese airspace, as well as edge computing capabilities and HAPS-based communication with drones to support the development of 3D communication networks.

Conducted in partnership with SoftBank Corp., a leading telecommunications and information technology operator in Japan and globally, ST1 marks Sceym’s first flight to Asia and serves as a significant milestone towards the commercial deployment of HAPS as stratospheric infrastructure.