The hot air balloon was observed in the sky over Longmont, collecting data for NASA and ensuring flight safety.

If you happened to look up at the sky in Longmont on Friday morning, you may have noticed something unusual — a white, semi-transparent, oddly shaped balloon floating at an altitude of about 50,000 feet above the ground.

Don't worry – this balloon is not a Chinese tracking device and is not a stray weather balloon left over from the Labor Day launch in Colorado Springs last weekend. Rather, it was identified as a Stratollite, a special type of high-altitude balloon developed by World View Enterprises, a private American company focused on near-space research and technology with headquarters in Tucson, Arizona.

Phil Woken, vice president of marketing and communications at World View Enterprises, confirmed on Friday that the balloon was collecting data on solar radiation as part of a mission launched in partnership with NASA and Space Environment Technologies.

Unlike weather balloons that ascend and eventually burst, Stratollites can be remotely controlled, directed, and adjusted in altitude to maintain a flight path over specific areas. Stratollites, which stand at about 450 feet tall when fully inflated, have a wide range of applications, from detecting forest fires and monitoring methane emissions to national security surveillance and weather forecasting for government, scientific, and commercial sectors.

This particular Stratollite balloon was launched from Arizona on August 31 and is expected to travel along the 40th parallel for the next two weeks. The Stratollite will collect data for the Automated Radiation Measurements for Aerospace Safety (ARMAS) project, which focuses on measuring radiation in the atmosphere to make flights safer.

A company representative stated that by collecting real-time radiation data, the mission contributes to increasing flight safety and research in Earth sciences, "laying the foundation for an automated, reliable operational system that can monitor the natural galactic and solar radiation environment at commercial aviation flight altitudes."

On Friday, the Boulder County Sheriff's Office confirmed that the balloon posed no threat to public safety.