Space Perspective has introduced a ticket priced at $125,000 for a journey to the edge of our atmosphere aboard a hot air balloon for the first time. The Florida-based company aims to enter a "new era of luxury travel experiences" by offering tours on its Neptune spacecraft, a massive hydrogen-powered balloon with a passenger capsule that can float above the Earth's atmosphere. There, amateur astronauts can enjoy the beauty of our planet through panoramic windows and reclining seats.
Given the high cost of such a luxury trip, the amenities are proportionate, featuring a designated drink area and built-in bathrooms within the pressurized capsule. Individual and group bookings have opened for the anticipated launch scheduled for 2024, expected to take place at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
In contrast, typical space travel imposes many requirements on passengers and planet Earth, needing millions of pounds of fuel for turbulent launches. Instead of blasting off into the atmosphere at speeds that defy gravitational forces, as rockets do, the Neptune spacecraft offers guests a "radically gentle ride" in capsules designed to carry eight people. These capsules are pulled up by a 650-foot-high hydrogen-filled balloon, making it the most environmentally friendly space travel option to date.
During a video press conference last year, Space Perspective executives Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum explained that the Neptune spacecraft will take approximately two hours to reach its maximum altitude of about 100,000 feet (18 miles) in a journey lasting around six hours. Despite the Hindenburg disaster of 1937, which resulted in the explosion of a hydrogen-filled Zeppelin balloon and the loss of 35 lives, Space Perspective insists that hydrogen was their only choice.
The company stated that their spacecraft is "naturally safer than rocket flights," with no recorded human incidents using a space balloon, and "no failures" in "nearly 100 flights" conducted using balloon designs that match the design of Space Perspective's Neptune spacecraft. The competitive price of $125,000 is a small fraction compared to the auctioned space ticket by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, which soared to $28 million.
