Google’s hot-air balloon project, providing cell service, is closing down

Google’s parent company Alphabet is shutting down Loon, a high-profile subsidiary spun out from its research labs that used hot-air balloons to deliver cellular connectivity from the stratosphere.

Nearly a decade after it began the project, Alphabet said Thursday that it pulled the plug on Loon because it did not see a way to reduce costs to create a sustainable business. Along with the self-driving car unit Waymo, Loon was one of the most hyped “moonshot” technology projects to emerge from Alphabet’s research lab, X.

“The road to commercial viability has proven much longer and riskier than hoped. So we’ve made the difficult decision to close down Loon,” Astro Teller, who heads X, wrote in a blog post.