A Florida company is selling tickets to take tourists into orbit in a particular spaceship the size of a soccer stadium. The price, however, is not exactly cheap
A sort of hot air balloon the size of a soccer stadium is preparing to take tourists into space. This is the Space Perspective spaceflight company that is already selling tickets to go into orbit on its Neptune spacecraft, shaped like a huge inflatable balloon. The first flights will leave at the end of 2024, and the agency is already taking reservations from travelers interested in going beyond Earth's borders. The price, however, can not be considered cheap: to secure one of the eight seats on board you have to spend $ 125,000.
The flight of the "hot air balloon" in Space
The project of Space Perspective provides a journey lasting about six hours, two of which will be dedicated to observe the Earth from Space at 360 degrees and another two hours will serve to bring down the ship. Descent that will take place in the ocean where a ship will bring back to the mainland the passengers. In reality, those present on Neptune will be taken to the edge of our planet, about 30 kilometers from the globe. The spacecraft was designed in collaboration with the British design firm PriestmanGoode and the first test flight took place on June 18 from the Space Coast Spaceport in Titusville, Florida. From inside the pressurized capsule were photographed magnificent images of the Earth as seen from Space.
For the 2024 trips, in the "hot air balloon" will take place, in total, nine people: eight passengers and a pilot. The company explained that the ticket cost of flights for the first year will be higher than in subsequent years. At a speed of about 18 kilometers per hour they will go to an altitude of about 30,500 meters. Also present inside the Spaceship Neptune are a bar, a restroom, armchairs and a very large window to enjoy the show outside.
"Space Perspective reinvents the thrill of space exploration with the world's most delicate journey," reads the company's statement announcing ticket sales. The $125,000-per-seat cost is expected to be about double the prices of Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic's minute-long space trips. The safety of the Neptune spacecraft is guaranteed, Space Perspective's website says, by the flight technology applied for decades by NASA and other government agencies around the world, and guests are not required to be physically fit.
In addition to preparing to reach the edge of the Earth with the projects of Space Perspective, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, coming soon there is also the first TV series shot in Space, a documentary that follows the first civilian mission of Elon Musk's Space X.
Stefania Bernardini