Press Room.

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.

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.

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.

Space tourism company World View has 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.

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.

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.

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.