If you’ve always been fascinated by the awe-inspiring views of the Earth that astronauts get to experience from space, you will soon be able to enjoy those same views yourself.
A start-up named World View Enterprises, Inc. is developing a one-of-a-kind flight experience that will take civilians to the edge of space. No NASA training required.
Appropriately enough, passengers on the World View Experience will be called Voyagers, and here’s how the flight will work. Six Voyagers and two crew members will enter a luxurious capsule which will be gently lifted by a high-altitude balloon to a height of 100,000 feet. Voyagers will then spend the next two hours enjoying a rare privilege. They’ll observe breathtaking sights normally only seen by astronauts — the brilliance of the stars, the blackness of space and the curvature of the planet — before gliding back down to Earth. The entire experience will take approximately five hours.
“Exploration is the pinnacle of the human experience.”
Retired U.S. Navy test pilot and Space Shuttle Commander Mark Kelly has been named World View’s Director of Flight Crew Operations. The company expects to begin flights in late 2016, and they anticipate that no special training, medical pre-screening or space suits will be required. If you think this trip sounds “out of this world,” you can reserve your spot by placing a $5,000 deposit toward the $75,000 cost per passenger.
