This company is going to start sending tourists into super-high altitude via a balloon

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If you want to experience space, but can’t fork over the millions required to go to the International Space Station by SpaceX, then maybe this balloon will be the next best thing. From Space Perspective, the Spaceship Neptune is a balloon-propelled pressurized cabin that looks to take tourists 100,000 feet up for a reported price of $125,000 per passenger.

According to the announcement, Spaceship Neptune will take eight passengers up at a time on a six-hour flight. The pressurized cabin will feature wrap-around windows, a bar, and bathroom accommodations. The journey will be a slow one, only climbing at around 12 miles-per-hour. Payload tests are expected to start in 2021, with passenger-occupied flights expected within the next three and a half years.

Return trips of Spaceship Neptune will conclude in the Atlantic ocean, where the vessel will be secured by a recovery ship waiting for the balloon to land. Flights will initially launch from Florida at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, but other options could be made available in the future, as launching a balloon is less intensive than a full-blown space ship.

Because of the height, passengers will not get to experience that sweet, sweet weightlessness, like that of Virgin Galatic’s proposed space flights, but it will also cost about half the price and passengers will get more time to enjoy the experience.

Kevin, I’m going to need an advance on my paycheck. I’ll write about my experience, I promise.

What do you think? Is this something you’d do if you could afford it? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• SpaceX will start sending paying tourists to the ISS as soon as next year
• Dumb startup has canceled dumb plan to have a baby born in space
• FCC vote promises billions to bring broadband internet to rural areas still on dial-up
• Virgin Galactic has sent its first passenger into space

Josiah Motley

Former KnowTechie editor.