For a mere $125,000, a startup called Space Perspective plans to take tourists 19 miles above the earth in a capsule suspended from an eight-passenger capsule suspended from a high-altitude balloon.
The company is planning to begin testing its hydrogen-filled ‘Spaceship Neptune’ next year at leased space at the Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility. Flights would last about six hours, including a two-hour ascent.
The flight would be three times higher than commercial airliners fly, but well below the line that’s usually thought of as the edge of space, about fifty miles. But at the price it’s a bargain; Virgin Atlantic and SpaceX, which plan to offer rocket-based trips above the 50-mile mark, but with prices between $250,000 and a half million.
I think I’ll wait until they have a special offer. A very special offer!