BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – Space Perspective, a start-up company that wants to offer balloon rides from Brevard County to the upper reaches of the atmosphere, has obtained the financing it needs to start building its spacecraft and begin commercial flights in 2024, according to News 6 partner Florida Today.
If all goes as planned, the company will begin flying customers in 2024, said co-CEO Jane Poynter.
Recommended Videos
The company announced Thursday morning it had secured $40 million in new funding, which was its target. Poynter said the $40 million is enough to build the space capsule and begin offering commercial flights. “So we’re now a fully funded space-tourism company, which is amazing.”
[TRENDING: Here’s what Fla. is doing to solve national shipping delays | Sandwich shop closes Winter Park location | Become a News 6 Insider (it’s free!)]
Unlike other space-tourism companies, Space Perspective isn’t relying on rockets to send passengers to space. Instead, it will use a balloon to carry its roomy pressurized “Spaceship Neptune” capsule up to 100,000 feet before gently coming back down to Earth and splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico.
Each trip is expected to last about six hours with about two hours at the 100,000-foot mark.
The company conducted a successful un-crewed test flight in June.
The Spaceship Neptune capsule will carry a pilot and up to eight passengers. The flights won’t be as high as those of Blue Origin, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic and passengers won’t experience weightlessness.
But the six-hour ride is far longer than those other flights, is gentler on the body and requires no special training.
And 100,000 feet is high enough that passengers will be able to look down on the Earth in a way they never had before. “The view that you will get out of the window of Spaceship Neptune, is just about the same view that you would get the window of these other suborbital flight companies, even though they are going so much higher,” Poynter said.
Oh, and beverages will be available during the flight, as will wi-fi.
“Space Perspective represents the next frontier of the experience economy,” said Brandon Ross of LightShed Ventures, one the firms investing in Space Perspective. “The company makes space travel accessible to people of any age, and without any special physical training. The sky’s no longer the limit!”
Poynter said the company has already sold out the 25 flights it has planned for the first year of operation.
Among the new investors is Prime Movers Lab, a venture capital firm that invests in scientific startups.
“Prime Movers Lab’s team of engineers, subject matter experts, and advisors – who have decades of experience working for NASA, national research laboratories, and leading aerospace companies – conducted technical due diligence on Space Perspective’s team and patented SpaceBalloon technology, and we firmly believe that Space Perspective is the best-positioned company to democratize space tourism,” said Prime Movers Lab Partner Anton Brevde, who became Space Perspective board member with the investment,
“And here we are today,” Poynter said. “With a long list of customers very excited about the possibilities of this incredible experience.”
At $125,000 a seat, a ride on Spaceship Neptune is an adventure that will remain out of most people’s reach for years to come. Still, it promises to be the least expensive of the space tourism experiences. Virgin Galactic’s ticket price is $450,000. Blue Origin hasn’t yet released it price structure.