If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “I need a break from the earth,” you’re in luck!
Space Perspective, which says it is “the world’s first luxury spaceflight experience company,” has announced that it has opened bookings for flights into space departing in late 2024. The cost: $125,000 per passenger.
The six-hour experience will take place aboard a massive space balloon called Spaceship Neptune, which is about the size of a football stadium and comes fitted with a bar and bathroom. Passengers will have the opportunity to enjoy a 360-degree view of the planet in the pressurized cabin while relaxing in plush reclining seats 20 miles (about 100,000 feet) above the Earth.
Individual seats can now be secured with a $1,000 refundable deposit, or an entire capsule with eight seats can be reserved for an $8,000 refundable deposit. Special bookings are also available, including the first 25 flights that are called Legacy Explorers.
Calling it a “radically gentle voyage,” the trip will depart from Space Coast Air and Spaceport, which is across from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It will launch on a 2-hour ascent that goes 99% above the atmosphere and then glides for two hours above the Earth.
For those who want to share their flight in real-time, the capsule has Wi-Fi that allows for constant live streaming. The vessel will then return to Earth in another two-hour trip with a water landing before a ship picks up the passengers and capsule. The company notes that the experience is regulated by the FAA Office of Commercial Spaceflight.
This announcement comes on the heels of a successful test flight last week. Space Perspective’s Neptune One completed a six-hour and 39-minute test journey without any humans on board, launching at 5:23 a.m. on June 18 and sailing 108,409 feet in the air before landing about 50 miles off the Florida coast in the Gulf of Mexico.
“It is an incredible privilege launching from the space coast, where the history of human spaceflight was forged over the past decades and continues to build momentum today,” co-CEO and founder Jane Poynter said in a statement. “Flying on Spaceship Neptune will be an extraordinary experience for our space explorers.”
Source: Travel and Leisure