A 6-hour space trip in a hot air balloon…

Cape Canaveral-based Space Perspective has started booking tickets for a hot-air balloon tour scheduled for 2024.

On this trip, passengers ride a gondola, dubbed the Spaceship Neptune, and lift it into a high-tech space balloon as large as a football stadium to an altitude of 3,480 meters. From here, you can watch the sunrise from the ridges of the Earth or go higher to see the shining stars in a pitch-black space where you can see almost nothing.

In the case of Blue Origin, one commercial space flight ticket is auctioned off, and Virgin Galactic is also entering the realistic stage of realizing space travel. However, the space travel promoted by these two companies will be a busy schedule of using a dense capsule, boarding an aircraft the size of a private jet, reaching space within minutes of takeoff, experiencing weightlessness for a while, and descending to the ground.

In comparison, the Spaceship Neptune space trip will be a leisurely six-hour trip in total. In the cabin, colorful recliner seats are prepared for one pilot and eight passengers, and there is a panoramic window where you can enjoy a meal or view the surroundings 360 degrees through smartphone Wi-Fi, and there is a toilet under the deck. When traveling in space, the crew’s gondola launches into the sea close to the shore and is lifted by the ship’s deck crane to meet it. Ticket price is $125,000. Space Perspective completed its first test flight on June 18, reached an altitude of over 30,000 m as scheduled, and finally launched into the Gulf of Mexico. Space Perspective is expected to begin commercial flights in late 2024 and is currently taking a $1,000 deposit per seat. Related information can be found here.