Buzz
In recent years, the space race has intensified following a series of successful test flights by Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic last year. Following suit, a Florida-based company named Space Perspective also plans to journey to Earth's stratosphere at a lower cost than the two giants, priced at just $125,000. Although tickets went on sale in June last year, it wasn't until recently that Space Perspective officially unveiled the final design of their spacecraft.
Accordingly, Space Perspective is a startup founded by Poynter and Taber McCallum in 2020. They are also the co-founders of World View, a US technology and space exploration company. Space Perspective aims to deploy services and take a group of 8 passengers and 1 pilot to Earth's stratosphere by the end of 2024, a timeline that has been pushed back from the previous plan.The spacecraft's inaugural test flight was successfully conducted on June 18, 2021, from a spaceport in Florida, lasting 6 hours and 39 minutes, with no additional passengers on board. Cameras onboard captured stunning images of the sunrise.
Regarding size, Space Perspective compares the spacecraft's interior to 'a large balcony on a cruise ship.' When fully expanded, the balloon can reach 509,000 m3, enough to accommodate a soccer field inside.Since the flight journey does not depart from Earth's gravitational pull, passengers will not need to undergo any training. The company declares the boarding process will be as straightforward as regular commercial flights. The entire flight lasts 6 hours, including 2 hours in Earth's stratosphere, 2 hours for passengers to enjoy the scenery in the cabin before the spacecraft lands in the ocean for another 2-hour flight. Finally, passengers will be brought ashore by boat.
The spacecraft will provide onboard Wi-Fi for passengers to livestream, send photos, and call their families and friends about their amazing experiences. Additionally, satellite imagery and a 360-degree camera will allow passengers to customize the view. Multiple cameras inside and outside the cabin will record the journey into space, ready to provide footage and images to passengers if needed.
Before branching out to establish Space Perspective, Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum had experience designing air, food, and water systems for Biosphere 2 - a US research facility on Earth systems in Arizona. Both have declared that Space Perspective's tourist flights will be emission-free and environmentally friendly. As most of us know, rapid space tourism flights lasting just a few minutes generate a vast amount of emissions, directly impacting the environment.
However, Space Perspective utilizes high-energy rockets to ascend to space, overcoming gravity with buoyancy. They opt for Hydro instead of Heli, as it is a limited supply necessary for the more crucial medical field. The lifting gas inside the balloon will be lighter than air, allowing Spaceship Neptune to float in Earth's atmosphere. All parts of the spacecraft are reusable, except for the materials composing the balloon's shell. This part will be recovered and recycled by the research team at the end of each flight.According to CNN, Space 
