UFO Landing in Bhutan: Is it a Project Loon Balloon?

Photo source: Kuensel

The moment I opened today's Kuensel(15 Jan 2014), I was excited to see the image of an UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) which landed in Shingdeygang village in Sibsoo. The images and talks about UFO always brings in me a sense of inquisitiveness and makes me wonder a lot. Read my earlier post on  Curiosity Landing on Mars where I mentioned about how I get fascinated about the the extraterrestrial lifeforms and the space crafts. Almost instantly, I was filled with numerous questions and wanted to see the object in real. The news says that the inscription on the balloon read who ever finds the balloon would be rewarded although what kind of reward is not mentioned. The object has been taken to Thimphu for further investigations.

How could I ever leave the matter at that point? I almost instantly googled about what it could really be and after my little online research, I was taken to a google project site called "Project Loon" . Project Loon is an undertaking of Google and it is a network of balloons travelling on the edge of space, designed to connect people in rural and remote areas, help fill coverage gaps, and bring people back online after disasters. So, these Project Loon balloons float in the stratosphere and are carried around the Earth by winds. People can connect to the balloon network using a special internet antenna. The project Loon pilot test began in June 2013 and thirty balloons were launched from New Zealand's South Island.

Launching of the balloon

Balloon when airborne

The above images are from various online sources which resembles the one that landed in Bhutan. Sipsoo's UFO is supposedly one amongst the thirty which was launched as a pilot project and the reward that we could request from the project is free internet in Sipsoo :).  For the time being let's wait and see whether it is really the balloon from Project Loon.is