NEWS & INNOVATION

NBC LX NEWS - If you have dreams of a trip to space, but don't have close to $1 million to make this a reality, there is a new startup that might be perfect for you. Tickets will cost $50,000, which will get you a much more enjoyable and long-lasting experience than just an up-and-down trip on a rocket.

CBS INNOVATION NATION - The Henry Ford's Innovation Nation with Mo Rocca is a weekly celebration of the inventor’s spirit - from historic scientific pioneers throughout past centuries to the forward-looking visionaries of today. Watch every weekend on your local CBS station. This week, we spotlight World View, which is redefining what it means to be a space tourist by exploring our planet from the stratosphere.

AXIOS - Starting in 2024, a Tucson company plans to send people to the edge of space to see some of the world's wonders from a new vantage point. World View is designing a space capsule that will allow up to eight passengers to take a six- to eight-hour trip to Earth's stratosphere.

AEROSPACE AMERICA - World View is already part of history as a member of the team whose stratospheric balloon hoisted former Google executive Alan Eustace to an altitude of 41 kilometers for his record-breaking skydive in 2014. Now, CEO Ryan Hartman and his team are closing in on a loftier goal: regular passenger flights to the stratosphere via those same balloons starting in 2024.

BUSINESS INSIDER - Growing up, Chris Cokinos recalls huddling close to the television set and using an old-fashioned clunky tape recorder to record the news, which included everything from the Apollo missions to updates from Skylab, NASA's first space station. Decades later, the University of Arizona creative writing professor no longer has to imagine it: he'll be taking a flight into the Earth's stratosphere with one of the more affordable space tourism operators, World View.

NASA - A total of 60 winning teams will be selected to turn their proposed experiment idea into reality and launch their technology on a suborbital flight test. The winning teams will each receive $1,500 to build their experiment and an assigned spot on a NASA-sponsored high-altitude balloon flight operated by one of two commercial providers: Aerostar of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, or World View based in Tucson, Arizona. Both high-altitude balloons provide exposure to the stratosphere at altitudes of approximately 9-19 miles (15-30 kilometers) and variable duration of flight time of hours to days.

BREAKING DEFENSE - Private company World View Enterprises sees an expanding market for stratospheric platforms like its Stratollite® balloons, especially for providing persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) for the military services from eye-watering heights.

PRESS RELEASE - World View, the leading stratospheric exploration and space tourism company, today announced a collaboration with Grammy-winning duo The Chainsmokers, hosting them on a World View space tourism flight to become the first musical artists to perform at the edge-of-space. With commercial space tourism flights launching in 2024, The Chainsmokers will be among the first explorers to experience the stratospheric journey. The Chainsmokers will record a performance from inside the World View capsule, giving viewers the ability to experience the music and the artists’ trip to the edge-of-space firsthand.

PRESS RELEASE - World View hired three new industry experts to establish and lead a new safety program that includes the company’s testing and safety protocols ahead of human space flights starting in 2024. The new personnel will build on World View’s existing safety protocols and risk assessment procedures that have successfully guided more than 100 uncrewed flights and remote sensing missions for commercial and government customers. In turn, the committee’s work will provide the additional measures needed for World View to begin space tourism missions in two years.

PRESS RELEASE - In support of World Rainforest Day, June 22, World View, the industry leading stratospheric ballooning and space tourism company, announces a new alliance with Rainforest Partnership, an impact-driven international nonprofit that uses the power of community-centered collaboration to protect rainforests—crucial components in the global climate crisis—in some of the most critical places on Earth for biodiversity and climate.

CHEDDAR NEWS - A space balloon start-up, which plans to fly paying customers to the edge of space as early as 2024, has signed up its 1,000th customer, making it the most sought-after space tourism operator in the world. The Tucson, Arizona-based World View sells rides on its space balloons for $50,000 per seat, about one ninth of the price of a spaceflight ticket with Virgin Galactic. Relying on helium-filled balloons, World View won't deliver the full space tourism experience with weightlessness, but its customers will see planet Earth from 23 miles (37 kilometers) above, almost three times higher than the cruising altitude of a passenger jet. At this altitude, one can observe the curvature of Earth as well as the star-studded blackness of the sky, the company said in a statement. The experience is more of a slow-burn, six to eight hours, compared to the adrenaline-filled rocket-powered flights offered by Virgin Galactic or Blue Origin.

FAST COMPANY - World View promises the same heavenly views for a fraction of the cost of Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and SpaceX. Weightlessness not included—but there are cocktails.

CNBC - Nearly half of Americans want to travel to space. But that means the other half doesn’t, according to a 2021 survey by ValuePenguin, one of LendingTree’s financial research websites. Nearly 40% said space travel was too dangerous, while others worried about environmental impact and costs.

PRESS RELEASE - World View announced today a partnership with Space Environment Technologies (SET) to include a suite of technologies aboard World View space capsules that will measure space radiation and other forms of data about Earth’s atmosphere. SET’s system, coined ARMAS (for “Automated Radiation Measurements for Aerospace Safety”), will accompany World View’s development and commercial space flights from 2023-2024. ARMAS data from these flights will help World View and SET develop a deeper understanding of Earth’s high-altitude environments and the stratosphere.

SPACE.COM - A space balloon start-up, which plans to fly paying customers to the edge of space as early as 2024, has signed up its 1,000th customer, making it the most sought-after space tourism operator in the world.

THE NEW YORK TIMES - From zero-pressure balloon trips to astronaut boot camps, reservations for getting off the planet — or pretending to — are skyrocketing. The prices, however, are still out of this world. Ilida Alvarez has dreamed of traveling to space since she was a child. But Ms. Alvarez is afraid of flying, and she isn't a billionaire — two facts that she was sure, until just a few weeks ago, would keep her fantasy as out of reach as the stars. She was wrong.

PRESS RELEASE - World View, the leading stratospheric ballooning and space tourism company, has accomplished a new milestone: reaching one thousand reservations for its space tourism program taking participants to the edge of space in a zero-pressure stratospheric balloon and pressurized space capsule. As seasoned leaders in stratospheric exploration and space tourism, the company has now sold the greatest number of seats in the space tourism category.

ROBB REPORT - Actor Adrian Grenier of the show Entourage will serve as Chief Earth Officer for World View, a company with a space balloon for tourists.