Tickets on sale for space flight to the edge of space: Would you want to book a seat to glide in a spaceship?

Tickets on sale for space flight to the edge of space: Would you want to book a seat to glide in a spaceship?

The inaugural test flight that lasted 6 hours and 39 minutes took off on June 18 from the Space Coast Spaceport in Titusville, Florida.

On April 12, 1961, aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin becomes the first human being to travel into space. The 27-year-old test pilot's space capsule orbited Earth in 89 minutes.

Now, 60 years after that feat, a Florida-based human space flight company "Space Perspective" is planning to fly passengers as space tourists to the edge of space in a high-tech version of a hot air balloon, with a pilot and up to eight travellers riding in a pressurised capsule suspended from an enormous blimp.

Space Perspective is now taking reservations on its Spaceship Neptune for flights in early 2024, with tickets priced firmly in the once-in-a-lifetime bracket at $125,000 per person (under a crore, when converted to Indian Rupees). The price is graded and will be reduced after Year One. Over 300 seats already reserved, says the website, "Spaceflights for 2024 sold out. Book your seat now for 2025," it eggs you on.

"The most breathtaking six hours of your life... to gaze upon Earth from space – to take in the astounding views and vivid colours – is an unforgettable spectacle that astronauts call life-altering."

Space Perspective's co-founders Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum previously designed the air, food and water systems for the Biosphere 2 space base, in which they lived for two years.

What we know about the capsule spaceship:
The pressurised, roomy capsule beckons you to experience the majesty of gliding through space. It doesn’t use rocket fuel and promises that explorers can see the world anew through its vast windows. The five-metre diameter spaceship capsule (a polyethylene balloon) was designed in collaboration with UK design studio PriestmanGoode. When fully inflated, the balloon has a 100-meter diameter - about the length of a football field. It uses hydrogen as helium is in short supply and needed for vital medical application.

“We’re passionate about fundamentally changing the way people access to space—both to perform much-needed research to benefit life on Earth and to affect how we view and connect with our planet. Today, it is more crucial than ever to see Earth as an interconnected planet, a spaceship for all humanity and our global biosphere. This expanded view of our world is the life-transforming perspective astronauts speak of when they see the earth in space. This is the space perspective,” says the company's website.

"Our advanced space-balloon is designed to operate in the near-vacuum found at the edge of space," says Space Perspective's website. "NASA has used similar balloons for decades for flying large research telescopes."

The inaugural test flight that lasted 6 hours and 39 minutes took off on June 18 from the Space Coast Spaceport in Titusville, Florida. There was no crew on board but cameras on the balloon captured a stunning image of the Earth at sunrise as the capsule glided over the Earth.

Tickets on sale for space flight to the edge of space: Would you want to book a seat to glide in a spaceship?
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What Space Perspective says about the capsule:

  1. The pressurised, roomy capsule, where every seat is the best seat in the house, allows Space Explorers to experience the majesty of gliding through space while sipping a beverage of choice.

  2. Nine reclining-type, plush seats, for eight Space Explorers and a pilot.

  3. 360-degree panoramic windows.

  4. Refreshments bar and cabinet for belongings.

  5. Lavatory below the main deck.

  6. Wi-Fi connection, with communications devices to enable live streaming.

  7. Non-glare windows for excellent photography from inside the capsule.

  8. Sensors showing altitude, wind, and temperature throughout the flight.

  9. Instrument trunk on the capsule’s roof and below deck for research equipment.

  10. Splashdown Cone at the base allows for a smooth landing on the water.

After its first flights that will take off from Florida, the company is planning additional launch sites around the world, reports CNN.com.

The six-hour-long trip:

  1. No rocketing, just a two-hour gentle ascent above 99% of the Earth's atmosphere to 100,000 feet.

  2. 2 hours of leisurely gliding balloon giving 360-degree views from the cabin.

  3. Two-hour-long descent to the ocean (a splashdown).

  4. Space Perspective will send a ship to fetch passengers to shore.

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