Space balloon company offers first look at luxury cabins

A new entrant in the space tourism market promises customers views of the Earth from the comfort of a luxury cabin, lifted to the upper atmosphere with a giant balloon.

Space Perspective hopes to start launching from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in late 2024 with illustrations of its cabins. More than 600 tickets have been sold.

With high windows, deep seats, dark purple tones, and subdued lighting, the atmosphere is very different from its competitors.

The company's Neptune capsule has a drinks bar and wi fi.

It is a matter of debate if it really is spaceflight.

The balloon reaches an altitude of less than 30 kilometers, which is less than the altitude of Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin.

The Crew Dragons are deeper into space.

The altitude of commercial planes is around six miles high.

The co-founder of the company told Agence France-Presse that passengers will see the black of space when they see us above 99 percent of Earth's atmosphere.

Special training is not required. The company claims to be a zero-emissions alternative to rocket fuels, and the balloon climbs at 19 kilometers per hour.

They want to get hydrogen from renewable sources instead of using fossil fuels.

The price for the two-hour-up, two-hours-gliding, and two-hour-down voyage, which ends with an ocean splashdown, is less than the price for a ride on a spaceplane.

Blue Origin doesn't disclose its prices but they are thought to be far more than the $55 million paid by four entrepreneurs for the privilege of flying to the International Space Station on a SpaceX ship

We wanted to find a way that really changed the way people think about spaceflight and made it more accessible.

Feelings of weightlessness are not something the passengers will experience.

When the rocket engines are cut, passengers can unbuckle and float, but the ship keeps coasting upwards for a few minutes, before gravity pulls it back down.

Passengers on spaceships and the International Space Station experience weightlessness because the vessels are in the air.

All seats are booked for the first 25 flights of Space Perspective.

There will be a new year in 2022.

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