Couples could be having their wedding inside a capsule carried by a football stadium-sized space balloon that floats 100,000 feet (19 miles) above sea level by 2024.
Florida-based firm Space Perspective is currently selling flights on its capsules for $125,000 (£91,000) that will gift voyagers ‘insane’ views of Earth.
Capsules carried by the firm’s giant space balloons will take up to eight guests into the stratosphere, 100,000 feet (19 miles) above our planet’s surface, for a trip that lasts six hours.
Customers have already bought up entire capsules for group events and some even want to have their weddings there, according to the firm, which started selling flights at the end of June.
Others may celebrate their milestone birthday aboard a capsule or take a corporate event ‘to new heights’, the firm claims.
Passengers will be able to feast their eyes on 360-degree views of Earth while inside the capsule, which comes complete with a bathroom, bar and on-board Wi-Fi.
In June, the company’s test vehicle, Neptune One, successfully launched from the Space Coast Spaceport, adjacent to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
Throughout the flight, travellers will be given food and drinks to enjoy in their reclining seats. There is also Wi-Fi inside the capsule that will allow for live social media updates.
Tickets for Space Perspective’s ‘cruises’ to the stratosphere went on sale in June for $125,000. The firm is using giant space balloons to carry the luxury capsules.
Space Perspective is led by husband and wife team Taber MacCallum and Jane Poynter and based in Florida, who recently spoke to the Observer about the interest they’ve received since flights went on sale.
Spaceflights for 2024 are sold out, but customers can still book their seat now for 2025, according to the firm’s website.
Launching from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and flown gently by a spaceballoon instead of rockets, a ride on the zero-emissions capsule offers ‘the thrill of space and the comfort of calm’, the firm claims.
Space Perspective will be about relaxation – it will move at only 12 miles per hour during ascent and descent.
‘It’s going to be insane!’ Poynter said. ‘We launch from the Kennedy Space Center. It takes about two hours to get to the 30 km altitude.
‘During the ascent you’ll be able to see as far as 450 miles in every direction, so you’ll see the entire Florida peninsula, the Bahamas down through the keys over into the Gulf of Mexico.
‘At peak altitude you’ll see the total blackness of space and at the same time the curvature of Earth – that iconic, thin blue line that astronauts always talk about.’
Throughout the flight, travellers will be given breakfast, can order drinks and sit back in their plush reclining seats while soaking up the exclusive views.
Non-glare windows will provide an opportunity for excellent photography from inside the capsule, the firm claims.
Balloons would be able to see each other in space from 20 to 30 miles away, and would also be visible for people on the ground.
When it is time to return to the ground, the giant balloon will begin to deflate and the capsule will eventually splash down in a large body of water.
Source:DailyMail
