Commercial spaceflight is becoming increasingly common, with companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic having ferryed customers into space for a fee in the past few years.
People interested in seeing Earth from a different perspective may soon have a new option: CNBC spoke with three startups that aim to ferry tourists into the stratosphere using pressurized capsules and giant, gas-filled balloons: France-based Zephart, Florida-based Space Perspective, and Arizona-based World View.
“The capsule itself is designed to carry eight passengers and two crew members up into the stratosphere,” World View CEO Ryan Hartman said. “It has a central bar where people can congregate, and of course there are restrooms inside the capsule.”
The balloon flight lasts about six hours. Most planes that carry passengers into space reach altitudes of 15 to 19 miles above the Earth’s surface, flying in a region called the stratosphere. The U.S. government generally accepts that space begins about 80 kilometers, or about 50 miles, above the Earth’s surface.
Jane Poynter, founder and co-CEO of Space Perspective, has a different view.
“There’s no universal definition of space,” Poynter said. “We’re regulated as a spacecraft. If we’re above 98,000 feet, we’re a spacecraft. Outside the capsule, it’s basically a vacuum. We’re flying through more than 99 percent of the Earth’s atmosphere, which is why the sky is pitch black.”
Compared to rocket-powered space travel, the physical sensations passengers experience in a stratospheric balloon flight are closer to that of being aboard an airplane. Passengers do not experience weightlessness.
“You don’t have to be physically prerequisites to fly in a hot air balloon,” says Vincent Falletto d’Astiers, founder and chief pilot of Zephart. “If you can fly in a normal airplane, you can fly in a hot air balloon.”
All three companies told CNBC they’re pleased with the level of consumer interest. World Views said it has sold 1,250 tickets so far, while Space Perspective said it has sold 1,800. Zephrath told CNBC it would not disclose how many tickets it has sold but said its first flight was fully booked.
Tickets cost $50,000 a seat at World View and about $184,000 at Zephrath. Space Perspective is selling tickets for $125,000 a seat. All of this is if the commercial service launches.
So far, only Zephthart has conducted manned test flights, but not at its target altitude of about 15 miles above the Earth’s surface.
Watch the video to learn more about this emerging market.
