Microsoft’s Pegasus II Balloon Promises To Illustrate Azure IoT Capabilities

For the second time, Microsoft is sending a balloon into the clouds as a means of testing its ability gather Internet of Things (IoT)-related data. The Pegasus II balloon contains 36 sensors, seven radios and six cameras that stand to stream data back to Microsoft Azure using a distributed computing infrastructure called Project Orleans. Powered by 280 cubic feet of helium, the balloon intends to soar to an altitude of 100,000 feet to illustrate the IoT capabilities of the Azure platform such as Azure Stream Analytics. Interested end users will be able to view real-time telemetry of the balloon as it makes executes its journey, communicate with the spacecraft and receive text messages that inform of the achievement of select milestones. After being originally scheduled for launch during the week of February 22, 2016, Microsoft now anticipates its launch in March of 2016. Users can sign up for flight notifications here.