Space Perspective unveils capsule design for balloon-borne tourist flights (images)

Space.com

2 years ago

Space Perspective unveils capsule design for balloon-borne tourist flights (images)_62e139d08ac77.jpeg

Space Perspective’s balloon-borne capsule won’t have the gumdrop shape we typically associate with that aerospace term.

The Florida-based company today (July 27) unveiled the exterior design of its pressurized capsule, which will begin carrying customers to the stratosphere beneath a giant balloon just two years from now, if all goes according to plan. The craft, known as Spaceship Neptune, will be spherical, it turns out.

A spherical shape maximizes the panoramic views afforded by the capsule’s windows, which will be the largest ever to fly so high, company representatives said. Spaceship Neptune will also sport a proprietary “splash cone” at its base, which is designed to make its ocean landings softer and safer.

Space Perspective’s Spaceship Neptune capsule will be carried to the stratosphere by a giant balloon. (Image credit: Space Perspective)

“The team has come together to create an amazingly robust, safe and incredibly elegant and luxurious system for Spaceship Neptune,” Taber MacCallum, Space Perspective’s co-founder, co-CEO and chief technical officer, said in a statement today. “Simplicity and automation are the keys to safety.”

Today’s reveal comes three months after Space Perspective showed off what the capsule will look like on the inside. Spaceship Neptune’s cabin will feature a restroom with a view and a “Space Lounge” with a telescope and interactive screens, among other amenities.

Artist’s illustration of Space Perspective’s Spaceship Neptune with sunrise sunlight pouring through its big windows. (Image credit: Space Perspective)

Space Perspective has begun building the capsule at the Shuttle Landing Facility, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Commercial flights of Spaceship Neptune, which can carry nine people — eight passengers and a pilot — are expected to begin in late 2024, company representatives said.

Those flights will last about six hours from liftoff to splashdown. They’ll take passengers on a gentle ride to a maximum altitude of about 100,000 feet (30,000 meters), allowing a view of our thin atmosphere against the blackness of space. Spaceship Neptune won’t actually reach space, and passengers won’t experience weightlessness.