High Altitude Balloons Allow For (Near) Space Tourism

by Johny · June 27, 2014

World View Enterprises of Tucson says it has successfully completed the first scale test flight of a high-altitude balloon and capsule being developed to let tourists float 20 miles above the earth.

CEO Jane Poynter says the system broke the world record for highest parafoil flight, lifting a payload one-tenth of what is planned for passenger flight to 120,000 feet (36km).

Poynter says the company is still planning to begin its $75,000 per-person flights in 2016. The balloons will lift a capsule carrying six passengers to about 100,000 feet (30km), where they will float for about two hours.

Unfortunately the international boundary of space is established at 100 kilometres (327,360 feet), so it’s not technically space tourism. But it will give you quite a view anyway, see below..

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Johny

Johny (John-Erik) Krahbichler is the CEO and main author of Gadgetzz, since 2009. While Mr. Krahbichler's expertise is in consumer electronics, his true passion is science´, and educating the world about the universe we inhabit. Check out the non-profit Scientific Literacy Matters Currently Johny is using his experience from covering trade shows such as the CES, to work with trade show exhibition marketing.