A Singapore-based firm has been refused permission to launch a high-altitude balloon with a Singapore citizen on board over safety concerns, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) said Friday.

"Given the high density of air traffic in our skies and of the populace, space balloon flights cannot be launched from Singapore due to safety risks to aircraft in the Singapore Flight Information Region, as well as to lives and property on the ground," CAAS said in a statement. The IN.Genius Company was planning to launch the high-altitude piloted balloon, intended to float more than 65,000 feet above the sea, on Singapore's National Day, according to Channel News Asia.

"In other countries where space balloon flights have been tried, they are carried out in specially designated facilities far away from civilian air traffic and populated areas," the company's statement read.

Space balloons are generally used as a platform for atmospheric testing and measurement including humidity, temperature and wind speed. In a number of countries the use of recording device equipped unmanned space balloons has, like drone use, become a popular hobby.

Source: Sputnik News