NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – It’s known as the final frontier, and what better way to study it than here in the Land of Enchantment? One New Mexico company is preparing to utilize its technology to provide better insights for nearly 60,000 feet in the air.
“We are a fast-growing company, and we will be expanding in New Mexico.”
Eight years running in New Mexico, Sceye, an aerospace and research company, has been growing strong in the state.
“The overall mission for sky is to take that vast, untapped area between drones and satellites, which is generally known as the stratosphere, and turn that into a force for good,” said Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, CEO and founder of Sceye.
The company launches four different flights a year for their HAPS blimps.
“The way that our haps functions is that it’s aerodynamically shaped, uses helium for buoyancy, solar panels for daytime, and battery for nighttime.”
The flights are all used to test their capabilities and help them take the next steps in their research. The most recent flight tested the blimps’ abilities to fly day and night thanks to solar-powered batteries in the stratosphere.
“This is about control relocation, building evidence of our ability to stay over an area of operation.”
The company moved to New Mexico nearly eight years ago and has been doing flights out of Roswell since 2021. The company said they have been able to help find methane leaks from oil and gas sites and even provide broadband connectivity to some areas. Recently, the company received a multimillion-dollar investment and said it will help them take things to the next level.
“The HAPS industry is a far more scalable alternative to satellites.”
As the company continues to grow, they are planning further expansion in New Mexico, hoping to be a major contributor to the local economy.
“We’ll also start opening up for seasonal customer and so thereby doing our first step into a commercial operation.”
Sceye said next year, the main focus of their test flights will be the endurance of the blimps testing to see how long they can keep them operational in the stratosphere.