OLNEY, Ill., Oct. 21, 2026 – Olney, Illinois-based Aerostratospheric continues development of its xAirship-S prototype ahead of its public reveal on Saturday, March 13, 2027, from 10 AM to 2 PM CT at Olney Community Building (indoors) in Olney, Illinois. Aerostratospheric hosts a featured guest-vendor session at the High Altitude Science Summit*. Summit attendees will be the first to see the xAirship-S in person, afloat on display at the summit.

The xAirship-S is Aerostratospheric's smaller airship platform, a fraction of the size of the xAirship. It is designed for slow, stable, low-altitude flight and is intended primarily for atmospheric observation, scientific monitoring, and research. The xAirship-S will be custom assembled in Olney, Illinois.

xHABsat is Aerostratospheric's high altitude sensor array module. It comes in two software versions and two layouts: one built for the xAirship-S, and a stratospheric version paired with Aerostratospheric's X2Griffon and x1Albatross flight platforms. An Arduino flight computer runs the array, shows live status on a small onboard display, and logs each flight to a memory card. More information: https://midwestsds.com/platforms.html#xhabsat.

"We've long wanted to bring the xAirship back," said Jeremy David Higgs, President of Aerostratospheric. The xAirship-S is designed as a smaller first step toward that larger xAirship concept.

The reveal is a first public look at a prototype in development. Aerostratospheric releases the datasets from its science flights openly for public scientific and educational use, and publishes open ground data from its own station on xDataHub at https://www.midwestsds.com/msds-data-hub.html. Researchers, educators, and partners interested in data collaboration can reach Aerostratospheric at [email protected] or book a 15-minute call at https://calendly.com/aerostratospheric/15min.

The xAirship-S is a prototype in development and is not offered for sale. Specifications, images, and capabilities are preliminary and subject to change. Product details: https://midwestsds.com/xairship-s.html. Reveal guide: https://midwestsds.com/what-to-expect-xairship-s-reveal.html. Summit details: https://highaltitudescience.online and https://midwestsds.com/summit.html.

*The High Altitude Science Summit is produced by Aerostratospheric.

About Aerostratospheric
Olney, Illinois-based Aerostratospheric designs, builds, and flies lightweight high-altitude payload science platforms and publishes open atmospheric data for research, education, and public use. Science flights are conducted under FAA Part 101. Corporate office: 801 S. West Street, Suite 101, Olney, IL 62450. Launch operations: Casey, Illinois. Web: https://www.aerostratospheric.com/

Media contact
Elena Vargas, Press & Communications Lead
Aerostratospheric
(603) 600-AERO
[email protected]

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