Shark slippers and rollerblades: inside Alphabet’s secretive internet balloon lab

With clusters of balloons through the stratosphere, Project Loon aims to bring internet to the two-thirds of the world's population who still don't have access

It's a gloomy day in Silicon Valley, and there's a hive of activity inside Alphabet's X laboratory, where the technology company incubates ambitious "moonshot" ideas.

A handful of staff wearing sunglasses and shark slippers are standing on top of a 15-meter illuminated surface, marking an enormous piece of plastic with pens. It looks like the world's nerdiest fashion runway, but it's actually a giant flatbed scanner - nicknamed Billie Jean - used to analyze structural damage to the high-altitude Project Loon balloons Google's parent company wants to use to deliver internet service to remote parts of the world.