This Company Will Take You to the Edge of Space in a Hot Air Balloon for $50,000
World View, a company specializing in stratospheric ballooning, has announced its new edge-of-space tourism experience, which involves lifting eight participants and two crew members in a zero-pressure stratospheric balloon and pressurized space capsule to 100,000 feet, or nearly 23 miles into the stratosphere.
The total experience will last between six and 12 hours, beginning at World View's spaceports located around the world. Guests will arrive five days ahead of their flight to experience the surrounding area. Spaceports are located in various places such as the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef, the Serengeti, Aurora Borealis in Norway, Amazonia in Brazil, the Giza Pyramids, and the Great Wall of China.
The flights cost $50,000 per person and the company aims to make space travel affordable and accessible to more people. Deposits can be put down with just $500, and the first commercial flights are expected to begin in early 2024 with Space for Humanity, a non-profit organization.
World View's President and CEO, Ryan Hartman, stated that the company opted for a different type of space tourism experience to increase humanity's access to space tourism. The company designed the experience to be gentle, accessible to people of all physical abilities and maximize the value of time and place.
