Space & Astronomy

Company offers balloon trips in to space

By T.K. Randall
October 24, 2013 ·  12 comments

World View will take passengers up to a height of 100,000ft. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 2.0 Open Space Project An offshoot of the Paragon Space Development Corp, the firm is hoping to compete with Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic which will soon be offering trips in to space for $250,000 a seat. The balloon-based trips will be a more relaxed affair and cost a lot less at $75,000 per ticket.

"You can be sitting up there having your beverage of choice watching this extraordinary spectacle of the Earth below you and the blackness of space," said Paragon president Jane Poynter who co-founded the venture. "It really is very gentle. You can be up at altitude for hours, for days for research if you need to be."Unlike Virgin Galactic's high-tech SpaceShipTwo, World View will use a more traditional approach to high-altitude flying by propelling wannabe space tourists in to the heavens using helium-filled balloons.

"I think we have the opportunity to give a really, really incredible experience to people - and for a lot less than most of what's out on the market right now," said Poynter.

Source: Discovery News | Comments (12)

Tags: World View, Space Tourism