Mystery Balloon Over Colorado Mountains Sparks Speculation of Military Activity or UFO

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DENVER (KDVR) Colorado has a history of unusual sightings in its skies, recalling the infamous “Balloon Boy” incident from October 2009. On Tuesday, residents were once again curious about a mysterious balloon drifting across the state.

The National Weather Service identified the object as a Stratollite balloon, operated by a New Mexico-based private company that deploys high-altitude balloons for research purposes. The Moffat County Sheriff’s Office confirmed sightings of the balloon just south of Craig.

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Local affiliate KDVR tracked the balloon using the FlightAware website, which showed its path moving towards the Boulder County area on Tuesday. It continued westward to Routt County before heading south and southwest in the direction of the Four Corners region on Wednesday.

Phil Wocken, the vice president of World View Enterprises, Inc., explained to FOX31 via email that the balloon had been launched 42 days earlier from their headquarters in Tucson, Arizona.

A Stratollite balloon above Kremmling, Colorado. (Courtesy of Barb Kollar)

One eagle-eyed FOX31 viewer captured a clear photo of the Stratollite balloon near Kremmling on Tuesday.

Wocken said that the balloon navigates and persists in the stratosphere by navigating the four-directional winds at different altitudes. He said that advanced flight modeling and forecasting tell the researchers exactly what altitudes the balloon needs to fly in to “catch” the winds for a desired direction.

“We’ll then increase and decrease altitude thousands of times during a flight to navigate the system,” Wocken said.

The balloon floating over Colorado is a research and development flight on which World View Enterprises is testing “next-generation materials and avionics to advance our flight capabilities,” according to the company.

Wocken said that because Hurricane Priscilla remnants were impacting southwestern states, the company navigated the balloon into Colorado for a few days before taking it back to southern Arizona. He added that due to the company’s proximity to Colorado, flights launched in Arizona sometimes navigate into the Centennial State.

In fact, almost exactly a year ago, a similar balloon was reported flying over the Denver metro. That balloon was also from World View Enterprises, which was carrying a payload for NASA at the time.

The Moffat County Sheriff’s Office noted that the weather balloons typically fly between 75,000 and 100,000 feet in altitude, which makes them rarely visible to those on the ground.

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Mystery Balloon Over Colorado Mountains Sparks Speculation of Military Activity or UFO

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Mystery Balloon Over Colorado Mountains Sparks Speculation of Military Activity or UFO

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