{"success":true,"data":{"pressRelease":{"id":"133290","rtpr_id":"nPNAmYK3Na","ticker":"9434","exchange":"TSE Tokyo","all_tickers":["9434"],"title":"Sceye and SoftBank Corp. Complete Stratospheric Connectivity Demonstration in Japan, Advancing Towards HAPS Commercialization","author":"PR Newswire","published_at":"2026-09-02T00:00:00.838Z","article_body":"Sceye and SoftBank Corp. Complete Stratospheric Connectivity Demonstration in\nJapan, Advancing Towards HAPS Commercialization\nPR Newswire\n\nTOKYO, Sept. 2, 2026\n\nFirst mission of Sceye's Service Test Program travels more than 15,000 km from\nNew Mexico to Japan in the stratosphere, backhauls into SoftBank Corp.'s core\nnetwork, verifies Direct-to-Device and edge computing capabilities and\nHAPS-based communications with drones.\n\nTOKYO, Sept. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Sceye\n(https://edge.prnewswire.com/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=4765401-1&h=102617585&u=https%3A%2F%2Fsceye.com%2F&a=Sceye),\na U.S. aerospace and material science company specializing in High-Altitude\nPlatform Systems (HAPS) for telecommunications and real-time environmental\nmonitoring, today announced the successful trans-Pacific flight of its Service\nTest 1 (ST1) mission from New Mexico to Japan. Traveling more than 15,000 km\nthrough the stratosphere in 13 days, upon arrival over Japan, ST1 demonstrated\nmobile broadband connectivity to unmodified devices through SoftBank Corp.'s\ncore network and HAPS-based edge computing and communication with drones to\nsupport the development of a 3D communications network.\n\n\n\nConducted in partnership with SoftBank Corp\n(https://edge.prnewswire.com/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=4765401-1&h=2341524845&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.softbank.jp%2Fen%2F&a=SoftBank+Corp).\n(TOKYO:9434, \"SoftBank\"), a leading operator of telecommunications and IT\nbusinesses in Japan and globally, ST1 marks Sceye's first flight to Asia and a\ngroundbreaking milestone towards the commercial deployment of HAPS as\nstratospheric infrastructure.\n\n\"This flight marks a defining moment for Sceye and for the commercial\npotential of HAPS,\" said Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, Founder and CEO of\nSceye. \"Flying from the US to Japan demonstrates the performance required to\nmake the stratosphere a viable layer of infrastructure and realize the future\nof AI, edge computing, and 6G. Together with SoftBank, we are moving beyond\nproving the technology to demonstrating how Sceye can complement and extend\nexisting networks and deliver persistent connectivity at scale.\"\n\nThe stratosphere offers the optimal vantage point: It is close enough to Earth\nfor high-capacity connectivity and observation, yet the altitude is high\nenough for wide-area reach. Importantly, the stratosphere offers space-like\nconditions without the cost of being in space and the disadvantages of being\nin orbit. Sceye's HAPS maintain altitude and their area of operation in the\nstratosphere through consecutive day and night cycles, operating like\ngeostationary satellites, only 1,800 times closer to Earth and at a fraction\nof the cost.\n\nIn 2025, SoftBank Corp. invested\n(https://edge.prnewswire.com/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=4765401-1&h=3463925261&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fnews%2Farticles%2F2025-06-25%2Fsoftbank-backs-startup-building-giant-floating-climate-stations&a=invested) in\nSceye's HAPS-based stratospheric infrastructure as a scalable solution to\ncomplement terrestrial towers and satellite constellations. The strategic\npartnership advances a shared vision for HAPS and Non-Terrestrial Networks\n(NTN) as transformative infrastructure that can expand connectivity, support\ncommunications during disasters, and enable future applications across AI,\nIoT, aerial communications, edge computing, and 6G.\n\nST1 carried SceyeCELL\n(https://edge.prnewswire.com/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=4765401-1&h=3971159907&u=https%3A%2F%2Fsceye.com%2Fpress-releases%2Fsceye-unveils-stratospheric-telecom-antenna-sceyecell%2F&a=SceyeCELL),\na first-of-its-kind \"cell tower in the sky\" designed to deliver wide-area\nmobile broadband directly to standard devices from the stratosphere. When\ndeployed at full scale, one Sceye HAPS is designed to cover the equivalent\narea of approximately 500 terrestrial towers. During the ST1 mission, Sceye\nand SoftBank demonstrated mobile broadband from the stratosphere, including\ntext messaging, voice calls, internet access, and video streaming. Testing\nalso included emergency calls, using an emergency alert messaging system\ndesigned for large-scale disasters, and communications with drones.\n\nSceye's ST1 mission launched on August 9, 2026 at 7:00 AM MDT from New Mexico.\nAdditional notable mission attributes include:\n* Traveled more than 15,000 km across the Pacific to Japan in 13 days\n\n\n* Operated within Japanese managed air space for over 7 days\n\n\n* Remained continuously within its area of operation for an extended period,\nachieving a station-seeking radius as low as 5 km\n\n\n* Operated at approximately 16.5 km in altitude while completing\ntelecommunications, drone, and emergency communications\n\n\n* Confirmed communications performance equivalent to that of terrestrial\nnetworks while reducing radio interference with ground-based base stations\n\n\n* Through a server installed on the HAPS, Sceye and SoftBank conducted data\nprocessing directly on the platform, demonstrating average round-trip\nprocessing response time of 68 milliseconds, reducing communications latency\nby over 40% compared with internet-based cloud processing. This marks the\nworld's first successful test in which a mobile core network and a web server\nfor processing were installed on a HAPS, enabling response processing to be\nperformed entirely onboard the HAPS and the results to be relayed back to\nsmartphones.\nST1 remains in flight, returning towards the United States over the Pacific\nOcean at the time of this announcement.\n\n\"SoftBank aims to build next-generation communications infrastructure that\nseamlessly connects the ground, the sky, and space. The fact that Sceye's HAPS\nreached Japan from the United States and successfully provided Japan's first\ntrial services from the stratosphere in Japan's airspace marks an important\nstep toward the commercialization of HAPS, which is at the core of this\nvision,\" said Junichi Miyakawa, President & CEO of SoftBank Corp. \"By\ncombining the HAPS flight and operational technologies that Sceye has\ndeveloped with SoftBank's communications technologies, we have gained\nconfidence to realize a three-dimensional communications network utilizing\nHAPS. Going forward, in collaboration with Sceye, we will continue to\nintegrate a wide range of technologies, including communications and AI, to\ndevelop HAPS into a new form of social infrastructure.\"\n\nThis flight builds on Sceye's Endurance Program\n(https://edge.prnewswire.com/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=4765401-1&h=3305847925&u=https%3A%2F%2Fsceye.com%2Fpress-releases%2Fsceye-completes-historic-12-day-6400-mile-stratospheric-flight-advancing-a-new-layer-of-infrastructure-for-humanity%2F&a=Endurance+Program),\ncompleted earlier this year, when its SE2 HAPS traveled more than 10,000 km in\nthe stratosphere from New Mexico to the coast of Brazil where it stayed over\nits area of operation for several days to test long-duration performance in\npreparation for the Service Test Program, the first of which flew to Japan.\n\nAbout Sceye\nFounded in 2014, Sceye\n(https://edge.prnewswire.com/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=4765401-1&h=102617585&u=https%3A%2F%2Fsceye.com%2F&a=Sceye) (pronounced\n\"sky\") is an aerospace company dedicated to advancing stratospheric technology\nto connect people and protect the planet. Sceye leads the High-Altitude\nPlatform Systems (HAPS) industry, focusing on universal connectivity, climate\nmonitoring, natural resource management, and disaster prevention.\n\nContact: press@sceye.com \n\n\n\nView original content to download\nmultimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/sceye-and-softbank-corp-complete-stratospheric-connectivity-demonstration-in-japan-advancing-towards-haps-commercialization-302866952.html\n\nSOURCE Sceye\n\n\n\nPhoto: \nhttps://mmx.prnewswire.com/media/MS1979609/Sceye-ST1-HAPS-launch-from-New-Mexico.jpg?id=OA2924890\nhttps://mmx.prnewswire.com/media/MS1589442/sceye-logo-suitcase-logo-full-colour-rgb-1000px-72ppi-ID-a12cb870d06f-Logo.jpg?id=OA2924889\n\nCopyright (c) 2026 PR Newswire Association,LLC. All Rights Reserved.","article_body_html":"","raw_payload":{"data":{"id":"nPNAmYK3Na","title":"Sceye and SoftBank Corp. Complete Stratospheric Connectivity Demonstration in Japan, Advancing Towards HAPS Commercialization","author":"PR Newswire","ticker":"9434","created":"2026-09-02T00:00:00.838Z","tickers":["9434"],"exchange":"TSE Tokyo","article_body":"Sceye and SoftBank Corp. Complete Stratospheric Connectivity Demonstration in\nJapan, Advancing Towards HAPS Commercialization\nPR Newswire\n\nTOKYO, Sept. 2, 2026\n\nFirst mission of Sceye's Service Test Program travels more than 15,000 km from\nNew Mexico to Japan in the stratosphere, backhauls into SoftBank Corp.'s core\nnetwork, verifies Direct-to-Device and edge computing capabilities and\nHAPS-based communications with drones.\n\nTOKYO, Sept. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Sceye\n(https://edge.prnewswire.com/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=4765401-1&h=102617585&u=https%3A%2F%2Fsceye.com%2F&a=Sceye),\na U.S. aerospace and material science company specializing in High-Altitude\nPlatform Systems (HAPS) for telecommunications and real-time environmental\nmonitoring, today announced the successful trans-Pacific flight of its Service\nTest 1 (ST1) mission from New Mexico to Japan. Traveling more than 15,000 km\nthrough the stratosphere in 13 days, upon arrival over Japan, ST1 demonstrated\nmobile broadband connectivity to unmodified devices through SoftBank Corp.'s\ncore network and HAPS-based edge computing and communication with drones to\nsupport the development of a 3D communications network.\n\n\n\nConducted in partnership with SoftBank Corp\n(https://edge.prnewswire.com/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=4765401-1&h=2341524845&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.softbank.jp%2Fen%2F&a=SoftBank+Corp).\n(TOKYO:9434, \"SoftBank\"), a leading operator of telecommunications and IT\nbusinesses in Japan and globally, ST1 marks Sceye's first flight to Asia and a\ngroundbreaking milestone towards the commercial deployment of HAPS as\nstratospheric infrastructure.\n\n\"This flight marks a defining moment for Sceye and for the commercial\npotential of HAPS,\" said Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, Founder and CEO of\nSceye. \"Flying from the US to Japan demonstrates the performance required to\nmake the stratosphere a viable layer of infrastructure and realize the future\nof AI, edge computing, and 6G. Together with SoftBank, we are moving beyond\nproving the technology to demonstrating how Sceye can complement and extend\nexisting networks and deliver persistent connectivity at scale.\"\n\nThe stratosphere offers the optimal vantage point: It is close enough to Earth\nfor high-capacity connectivity and observation, yet the altitude is high\nenough for wide-area reach. Importantly, the stratosphere offers space-like\nconditions without the cost of being in space and the disadvantages of being\nin orbit. Sceye's HAPS maintain altitude and their area of operation in the\nstratosphere through consecutive day and night cycles, operating like\ngeostationary satellites, only 1,800 times closer to Earth and at a fraction\nof the cost.\n\nIn 2025, SoftBank Corp. invested\n(https://edge.prnewswire.com/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=4765401-1&h=3463925261&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fnews%2Farticles%2F2025-06-25%2Fsoftbank-backs-startup-building-giant-floating-climate-stations&a=invested) in\nSceye's HAPS-based stratospheric infrastructure as a scalable solution to\ncomplement terrestrial towers and satellite constellations. The strategic\npartnership advances a shared vision for HAPS and Non-Terrestrial Networks\n(NTN) as transformative infrastructure that can expand connectivity, support\ncommunications during disasters, and enable future applications across AI,\nIoT, aerial communications, edge computing, and 6G.\n\nST1 carried SceyeCELL\n(https://edge.prnewswire.com/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=4765401-1&h=3971159907&u=https%3A%2F%2Fsceye.com%2Fpress-releases%2Fsceye-unveils-stratospheric-telecom-antenna-sceyecell%2F&a=SceyeCELL),\na first-of-its-kind \"cell tower in the sky\" designed to deliver wide-area\nmobile broadband directly to standard devices from the stratosphere. When\ndeployed at full scale, one Sceye HAPS is designed to cover the equivalent\narea of approximately 500 terrestrial towers. During the ST1 mission, Sceye\nand SoftBank demonstrated mobile broadband from the stratosphere, including\ntext messaging, voice calls, internet access, and video streaming. Testing\nalso included emergency calls, using an emergency alert messaging system\ndesigned for large-scale disasters, and communications with drones.\n\nSceye's ST1 mission launched on August 9, 2026 at 7:00 AM MDT from New Mexico.\nAdditional notable mission attributes include:\n* Traveled more than 15,000 km across the Pacific to Japan in 13 days\n\n\n* Operated within Japanese managed air space for over 7 days\n\n\n* Remained continuously within its area of operation for an extended period,\nachieving a station-seeking radius as low as 5 km\n\n\n* Operated at approximately 16.5 km in altitude while completing\ntelecommunications, drone, and emergency communications\n\n\n* Confirmed communications performance equivalent to that of terrestrial\nnetworks while reducing radio interference with ground-based base stations\n\n\n* Through a server installed on the HAPS, Sceye and SoftBank conducted data\nprocessing directly on the platform, demonstrating average round-trip\nprocessing response time of 68 milliseconds, reducing communications latency\nby over 40% compared with internet-based cloud processing. This marks the\nworld's first successful test in which a mobile core network and a web server\nfor processing were installed on a HAPS, enabling response processing to be\nperformed entirely onboard the HAPS and the results to be relayed back to\nsmartphones.\nST1 remains in flight, returning towards the United States over the Pacific\nOcean at the time of this announcement.\n\n\"SoftBank aims to build next-generation communications infrastructure that\nseamlessly connects the ground, the sky, and space. The fact that Sceye's HAPS\nreached Japan from the United States and successfully provided Japan's first\ntrial services from the stratosphere in Japan's airspace marks an important\nstep toward the commercialization of HAPS, which is at the core of this\nvision,\" said Junichi Miyakawa, President & CEO of SoftBank Corp. \"By\ncombining the HAPS flight and operational technologies that Sceye has\ndeveloped with SoftBank's communications technologies, we have gained\nconfidence to realize a three-dimensional communications network utilizing\nHAPS. Going forward, in collaboration with Sceye, we will continue to\nintegrate a wide range of technologies, including communications and AI, to\ndevelop HAPS into a new form of social infrastructure.\"\n\nThis flight builds on Sceye's Endurance Program\n(https://edge.prnewswire.com/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=4765401-1&h=3305847925&u=https%3A%2F%2Fsceye.com%2Fpress-releases%2Fsceye-completes-historic-12-day-6400-mile-stratospheric-flight-advancing-a-new-layer-of-infrastructure-for-humanity%2F&a=Endurance+Program),\ncompleted earlier this year, when its SE2 HAPS traveled more than 10,000 km in\nthe stratosphere from New Mexico to the coast of Brazil where it stayed over\nits area of operation for several days to test long-duration performance in\npreparation for the Service Test Program, the first of which flew to Japan.\n\nAbout Sceye\nFounded in 2014, Sceye\n(https://edge.prnewswire.com/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=4765401-1&h=102617585&u=https%3A%2F%2Fsceye.com%2F&a=Sceye) (pronounced\n\"sky\") is an aerospace company dedicated to advancing stratospheric technology\nto connect people and protect the planet. Sceye leads the High-Altitude\nPlatform Systems (HAPS) industry, focusing on universal connectivity, climate\nmonitoring, natural resource management, and disaster prevention.\n\nContact: press@sceye.com \n\n\n\nView original content to download\nmultimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/sceye-and-softbank-corp-complete-stratospheric-connectivity-demonstration-in-japan-advancing-towards-haps-commercialization-302866952.html\n\nSOURCE Sceye\n\n\n\nPhoto: \nhttps://mmx.prnewswire.com/media/MS1979609/Sceye-ST1-HAPS-launch-from-New-Mexico.jpg?id=OA2924890\nhttps://mmx.prnewswire.com/media/MS1589442/sceye-logo-suitcase-logo-full-colour-rgb-1000px-72ppi-ID-a12cb870d06f-Logo.jpg?id=OA2924889\n\nCopyright (c) 2026 PR Newswire Association,LLC. All Rights Reserved."},"type":"article","timestamp":"2026-09-02T00:00:00.87883923Z","server_sent_at_ms":1788307200878},"received_at":"2026-09-02T00:00:00.964Z","source_url":null},"analysis":{"id":"122182","press_release_id":"133290","analysis_json":{"industry":{"label":"Diversified Telecommunication Services","sector":"Communication Services"},"redFlags":[],"eventType":"operations_update","narrative":"SoftBank Corp. and partner Sceye completed a successful stratospheric connectivity demonstration, flying a HAPS vehicle more than 15,000 km from New Mexico to Japan in 13 days.\n\nThe mission validated Direct-to-Device mobile broadband and edge computing capabilities, achieving a 68-millisecond processing response time and over 40% reduction in latency.\n\nThis milestone advances SoftBank's strategy to commercialize stratospheric infrastructure as part of a next-generation 3D communications network.","sentiment":"bullish","agentHooks":{"shouldPost":false,"suggestedAngle":"SoftBank validates HAPS strategy with successful trans-Pacific connectivity demo."},"keyFigures":{"customDimensions":{"altitude_km":"approximately 16.5 km","distance_km":">15,000 km","latency_reduction":"over 40%","flight_duration_days":13,"station_seeking_radius_km":"5 km","processing_response_time_ms":68,"terrestrial_tower_equivalence":"500"}},"quotedText":"By combining the HAPS flight and operational technologies that Sceye has developed with SoftBank's communications technologies, we have gained confidence to realize a three-dimensional communications network utilizing HAPS.","namedEntities":{"people":[{"name":"Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen","role":"Founder and CEO of Sceye"},{"name":"Junichi Miyakawa","role":"President & CEO of SoftBank Corp."}],"products":["SceyeCELL","High-Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS)","Service Test 1 (ST1)"],"companies":[{"name":"SoftBank Corp.","ticker":"9434","relationship":"Filer / Partner"},{"name":"Sceye","relationship":"Partner / Investee"}],"dollarAmounts":[]},"materialImpact":{"score":2,"reasoning":"Successful technical demonstration validates SoftBank's strategic investment in HAPS and its 3D network vision, but the event is a milestone in a long-term R&D partnership rather than an immediate financial driver."},"tickerRelevance":{"others":[],"primary":"9434"},"globalImportance":25,"audienceRelevance":35,"eventTypeSecondary":["partnership"],"importanceComponents":{"tickerTier":"large-cap","eventGravity":"tech_milestone","sectorWeight":"telecom"}},"event_type":"operations_update","event_type_secondary":["partnership"],"sentiment":"bullish","material_impact_score":2,"narrative":"SoftBank Corp. and partner Sceye completed a successful stratospheric connectivity demonstration, flying a HAPS vehicle more than 15,000 km from New Mexico to Japan in 13 days.\n\nThe mission validated Direct-to-Device mobile broadband and edge computing capabilities, achieving a 68-millisecond processing response time and over 40% reduction in latency.\n\nThis milestone advances SoftBank's strategy to commercialize stratospheric infrastructure as part of a next-generation 3D communications network.","key_figures":{"customDimensions":{"altitude_km":"approximately 16.5 km","distance_km":">15,000 km","latency_reduction":"over 40%","flight_duration_days":13,"station_seeking_radius_km":"5 km","processing_response_time_ms":68,"terrestrial_tower_equivalence":"500"}},"named_entities":{"people":[{"name":"Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen","role":"Founder and CEO of Sceye"},{"name":"Junichi Miyakawa","role":"President & CEO of SoftBank Corp."}],"products":["SceyeCELL","High-Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS)","Service Test 1 (ST1)"],"companies":[{"name":"SoftBank Corp.","ticker":"9434","relationship":"Filer / Partner"},{"name":"Sceye","relationship":"Partner / Investee"}],"dollarAmounts":[]},"model_name":"glm-4.7","prompt_hash":"sha256:727b4b9429a443af","schema_hash":"sha256:05005c02d9cffac9","created_at":"2026-09-02T00:04:35.904Z","global_importance":25,"audience_relevance":35,"importance_components":{"tickerTier":"large-cap","eventGravity":"tech_milestone","sectorWeight":"telecom"}},"durationMs":93543,"modelName":"glm-4.7"}}