If you’re ready to leave this world behind, temporarily at least, then maybe a trip to space is just what you need.
It can be difficult to find some “space” these days. The news is full of shocking stories, one more outrageous than the last, everything is either on hiatus or in full virus mode, and between locust hoards and giant bats, we’re ready to find some peace of mind however we can get it.
Even if that means leaving the Earth for a little bit.
Wouldn’t that be the greatest adventure ever? To be able to wake up one morning, look out the window, and know that today will be the day you escape the world for a little bit.
Well, one company based in Florida wants to offer you that opportunity.
Florida-based startup firm Space Perspective plans to use the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak to serve as one of the launch sites for the vehicle, called the Spaceship Neptune.
The balloon rides will be manned by a flight crew taking eight passengers in a pressurized capsule suspended beneath a hydrogen balloon the size of a football stadium.
The trip would consist of a six-hour journey that takes you to the highest edges of the Earth’s atmosphere before making a descent to the waters surrounding Alaska’s Kodiak Island and the Aleutian Island chain. Going to the stars could cost approximately $125,000 per passenger.
The company plans to complete unmanned test flights from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida next year.
The website states, “We’re committed to fundamentally changing the way people have access to space – both to perform much-needed research to benefit life on Earth and to affect how we view and connect with our planet,” said Space Perspective Founder and Co-CEO Jane Poynter. “Today, it is more crucial than ever to see Earth as a planet, a spaceship for all humanity and our global biosphere.”
“It will carry people and research payloads on a two-hour gentle ascent above 99% of the Earth’s atmosphere to 100,000 feet, where it cruises above the Earth for up to two hours allowing passengers to share their experience via social media and with their fellow Explorers. Neptune then makes a two-hour descent under the balloon and splashes down, where a ship retrieves the passengers, the capsule, and the balloon.”
What do you think? Would you like to go for a space balloon ride?