TITUSVILLE, Fla. – Sir Richard Branson, the thrill-seeking billionaire behind the high-flying Virgin brand, has been announced as a co-pilot for Space Perspective’s first crewed test flight of commercialized stratospheric balloon travel.
Space Perspective completed its first uncrewed flight test last month out of Titusville, sending its “Spaceship Neptune” vessel to an altitude of 100,000 feet and back in about six hours. The company has reported it’s already sold more than 1,800 tickets for the real deal at $125,000 a pop.
Thursday on social media, the company announced Branson will join Space Perspective co-founders Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum for Spaceship Neptune’s first crewed test flight as soon as next year. The post adds Branson has made an investment in Space Perspective, crediting him for helping accelerate the company’s development and test flight program.
Several more uncrewed test flights will be performed between now and the crewed flight, according to the post.
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Poynter spoke with News 6 reporter James Sparvero about how the most recent test helps Space Perspective make progress toward its first flights with passengers.
“What we’re incredibly excited about is that this flight not only demonstrated the technology, because it was pretty much picture-perfect, it also demonstrated all the way through the flight from launch, up to space, and back down to splashdown how incredibly gentle it is,” Poynter said. “That is part of making it accessible.”
Space Perspective will call its passengers “explorers.”
“We’re aiming for the end of ‘25, sometime end of ‘25, early ‘26,” Poynter said of the crewed flight test.
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