The latest offering in space tourism promises to be a lot less bumpy.
Space Perspective, a Florida-based startup, recently unveiled a test capsule for its new Neptune spacecraft. Neptune is expected to start carrying passengers into the stratosphere — using a massive balloon, instead of rockets — as early as next year.
The test capsule, called “Excelsior” in honor of the US Air Force space-jump project of the same name, is fully functional but has not been fitted with the final interior design, Dezeen reported. Its onboard amenities are expected to include WiFi service, a cocktail bar, and even a toilet.
“The space capsule is like nothing the world has ever seen,” cofounder Taber MacCallum said in a statement. “We are on the cusp of a staggering shift — not only in the way we humans experience space, but also what we conjure in our minds when we think of the spaceship that gets us there.”
Once in commercial operations, Neptune flights are expected to ferry eight passengers and a captain, which the company said will “set the record for the most people taken to the edge of space.”
Space Perspective plans to conduct its first manned test flights by the end of the year, and commercial flights for the 1,750 people holding tickets in 2025.
The unique experience — a six-hour, 18-mile-high balloon trip, rather than the relatively-short flights of its rocket-powered competitors — is what makes the $125,000 ticket worth it, the company says.
“If you can get on a commercial airplane, you can get on Spaceship Neptune,” cofounder Jane Poynter said in an interview with Space.com. “That actually opens up the market enormously to people who otherwise don’t feel comfortable going on a rocket, or just simply can’t go on a rocket, but still want that extraordinary experience of seeing our Earth from space.”
However, the company is still working to secure a hydrogen supplier for its balloon propulsion, Dezeen reported.
