Space tourism is on the rise. Space Perspective is the newest competitor in this market. The startup plans to fly passengers and research payloads to the edge of space in a giant high-performance space balloon and Spaceship Neptune capsule in a luxurious six-hour trip. Up to eight guests can have the sensational experience, for $125,000 each, with the flights starting in 2024.
The Spaceship Neptune is a pressurized capsule propelled by a state-of-the-art space balloon the size of a football stadium. The capsule gently lifts passengers 100,000 ft/30,000 m to space to then be immersed, for two hours, in entirely new and breath-taking views of the curvature of Earth down below.
Space Explorers will leisurely ascend from a launch pad at the iconic Kennedy Space Center in Florida to soar above 99% of Earth’s atmosphere in an awe-inspiring, two-hour tour of our planet’s biosphere from inside the comfortable capsule of Spaceship Neptune and its vast viewing windows. Each Space Perspective capsule will entertain up to eight guests and be accompanied by a pilot.
All guests will enjoy the best reclining seats in the house throughout the six-hour journey to soak in the 450-mile (724 km), 360-degree view, an open call on a dress, champagne, and a bathroom. There is also a Wi-Fi communications system inside the cabin that allows for live streaming.
Space Perspective has just completed the first test flight of its Neptune One test balloon without crew on board, reaching heights over 100,000 feet. “The ability to perform test flights without crew on board allows more extensive testing of backup and safety systems than is possible with vehicles that require a pilot, making Spaceship Neptune an extremely safe way to go to space,” the company said in a statement. Commercial flights of Spaceship Neptune will have a pilot on board.
In the future, the company intends to continue test flights in order to work out the flight technology before the first tourists leave for the stratosphere.
