Lots of interest with LTA. Here Space Data balloon have been getting a workout:
October 18, 2012 "The launch was brief to the casual observer, but was part of a demonstration of the Combat SkySat military retransmission platform for members of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command.
According to Battle Lab officials, the balloon and its payload reached an altitude of 30,000 feet and was brought down after 30 minutes aloft (the system is designed to stay up for 12 hours.) The balloon and its package came down safely 62 miles east of Colorado Springs.
As part of the demonstration, a second balloon was launched earlier that morning from the Comanche National Grasslands in south central Colorado. Its purpose was to demonstrate the communications capability by providing a communications relay with the group observing the demonstration launch in Colorado Springs. Officials stated it reached an elevation of 80,000 feet in one hour and 20 minutes."
"Army Lt. Col. Tobin Magsig, battalion commander of 1st Battalion (Airborne), 501st Infantry Regiment, center-left, and Army Maj. Gen. Michael H. Shields, commanding general of U.S. Army Alaska, discuss the Combat SkySat system as a tethered Combat SkySat military retransmission platform floats in the air behind them at Forward Operating Base Sparta on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Oct. 9, 2013. The unique SkySat system has a tethered and free-floating version, can serve as a repeater for hand-held military communications equipment, which has a normal range of about two kilometers and expands that to approximately 500 miles, and can be set up and rapidly operational on the battlefield. (U.S. Air Force photo by Justin Connaher/Released)"
Rattlewatch, you mentioned Oceus? Looks like Space Data have been working with them: http://www.spacedata.net/
These Space Data balloons are free floating (when not tethered ).. like the Google-Loon design that we were reading about
From 2005: "Space Data Corporation, Chandler, Arizona, provided the maneuverable platform to transport the radios into near space: hydrogen-filled latex balloons that are approximately 10 feet in diameter and a 6-pound payload that includes the vetting and ballasting equipment, a parachute and a tracking device. Free-floating balloons travel at the whim of the wind, and the company spent substantial time on vetting and ballasting systems research and development so ascent and descent could be controlled. As a result, the platform can be positioned at an altitude where wind speed is minimal, which is in the 80,000-foot range, and remain there."
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