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First in Line
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THE SKY’S NO LONGER THE LIMIT FOR TOURISM, AND NOW A BALLOON HAS MADE LEAVING EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE RELAXED AND FUN.
If the world is too much for you, try glimpsing it from afar. The Florida-based company Space Perspective will soon be ready to help, lifting you to the stratosphere in a balloon-floated capsule it calls Spaceship Neptune. You’ll relax in a spacious, pressurized, restroom-equipped cabin while you ascend to 100,000 feet and float there. Technically that’s not outer space, but it’s above 99 percent of the Earth’s atmosphere, and this craft’s panoramic wraparound windows show off the curvature of our blue planet against the black cosmos. (Carry extra socks, as the ones you’re wearing are liable to be knocked off by the view.)
The Neptune provides six luxurious hours of abovethe-sky contemplation in which you and your seven fellow passengers (plus one pilot) can lean back in your reclining seats, enjoy the fine Wi-Fi, munch refreshments, sip cocktails and stock up visual memories so vivid and intense that even your grandchildren won’t ever forget them.
No knocks on the 11-minute trips today’s space tourists are taking with those other vendors you’ve read about. But in the realm of once-in-a-lifetime experiences, sometimes more is more. Spaceship Neptune will go “up, up and away” from Kennedy Space Center at a stately 12 miles per hour, with no worries about the disorienting G-forces that affect the body in a rocket launch. Lighterthan-air hydrogen gas will be used for the balloon, with technology NASA has employed for decades, and on your return your splashdown cone will gently plop into the sea and be retrieved by a ship. Commercial flights at $125,000 a pop are set to begin in 2024, but reportedly that year’s seats are already booked, so shoot for ’25 or after.
When it comes to great escapes, even the Wizard of Oz didn’t have it this good.
Test your limits while soaring to the edge of the planet in Spaceship Neptune by Space Perspective. The luxury-filled balloon-floated capsule takes adventure seekers as high as 100,000 feet in the sky—that’s above 99 percent of the Earth’s atmosphere!