Company plans space tourism flights in high-altitude balloon

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Company plans space tourism flights in high-altitude balloon

 

Researchers, armchair astronauts and even brides and grooms looking for an out-of-this-world wedding experience will be able to celebrate, collect data or simply enjoy the view

 

from an altitude of 100,000 feet in a balloon-borne pressurized cabin, complete with a bar and a restroom, a space startup announced Thursday.

 

"Spaceship Neptune," operated by a company called Space Perspective from leased facilities at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, will carry eight passengers at a time on six-hour

 

flights. The passenger cabin, lifted by a huge hydrogen-filled balloon, will climb at a sedate 12 mph to an altitude of about 30 miles high. That will be followed by a slow descent to

 

splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean where a recovery ship will be standing by to secure the cabin and crew.

 

Test flights carrying scientific research payloads are expected to begin in 2021. The first flights carrying passengers are expected within the next three-and-a-half years or so, with

 

piloted test flights before that.

 

Space tourists enjoy the view from 100,000 feet in this artist's impression of a ride aloft in Space Perspective's balloon-borne "Neptune" crew cabin.

 

While the company initially will operate out of the Florida spaceport, the system could be launched from multiple sites around the world, with Hawaii and Alaska near-term

 

possibilities.

 

Ticket prices for crewed flights have not yet been set, but company officials said Thursday the initial cost will probably be in the neighborhood of $125,000 per passenger. That's

 

about half what space tourists can expect to pay for sub-orbital flights aboard rocket-powered spaceplanes like those being developed by Virgin Galactic, which are designed to

 

reach altitudes of more than 50 miles.

 

Spaceship Neptune will fly well under that altitude and passengers will not experience weightlessness, but they will still be above 99% of Earth's atmosphere, nearly twice as high

 

as the supersonic Concorde once flew. And unlike shorter sub-orbital rocket flights that only spend a few minutes at the top of their trajectory, Neptune passengers will enjoy

 

two hours at peak altitude, taking in the view through large, wrap-around windows.

 

"One of the amazing things about the design we'e been able to work up is the ability to have events, things like weddings, corporate events. I can't wait to see spiritual leaders

 

flying with political leaders," said Space Perspective founder and co-CEO Taber MacCallum.

 

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