It drifted in the skies over Southwest Florida this week and some were concerned. What was it? No it wasn’t a weather balloon. Technically, it’s a space ship. NBC2 says the strange sighting was a device launched in Tucson, Arizona and then it crossed over Texas. When it made its way to Florida, it sunk too low and people were weirded out. Was it a drone? Is it spying on us? Is it another Elon Musk science project? No.
Turns out it’s a device used to collect data for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They’re the folks who help forecast the weather and monitor ocean and atmospheric conditions. The device uses helium to climb to the stratosphere near the edge of outer space. But they say it somehow lost helium and that’s why you could see it from Florida. It was wandering over us at about 60,000 feet.
More of Ted’s stories from this week…
File photo. (Photo by Pete Marovich/Getty Images)
