TO LAUNCH IN 2021, FLORIDA STARTUP SPACE PERSPECTIVE INVITES YOU ONBOARD SPACESHIP NEPTUNE, A BALLOON RIDE TO THE STRATOSPHERE
BY ARCHANA AITHAL ROSE
If this grueling pandemic has you jonesing for a quick escape from planet Earth, your wishes just might come true. Space Perspective, a Florida based spaceflight startup, is ready to test Spaceship Neptune, a high tech balloon designed to transport intrepid travelers to the edge of the cosmos. The capsule, designed in collaboration with U.K. based design studio Priestman Goode, will be lifted by a 650 foot, hydrogen filled balloon riding up to an altitude of 100,000 feet above sea level. All eight passengers aboard the zero emissions vessel can enjoy a refreshment bar and free WiFi to live stream their adventure to other earthlings. And while passengers won’t experience weightlessness or reach the Kármán line (the boundary of space), they will still be able to view the curvature of Earth and the star studded blackness of space. Every six hour Neptune ride will then end in a parachute aided ocean splashdown. The company hopes to have explorers in the sky by 2021.
