Government subsidies for sports stadiums are unfortunately common in many states. The practice continues even though it fundamentally involves giving taxpayer money to uberwealthy developers and franchise owners. But a recent court case from Arizona reveals a new spin on the public subsidy problem: passenger balloons to space.
World View Enterprises, a private space technology company based in Tucson, hopes to allow everyday citizens to experience what billionaires like Bezos, Branson, and Musk have achieved: a trip to space. While a ride on a Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, or SpaceX rocket is still prohibitively expensive for all but the very wealthy, World View hopes to offer high-altitude balloon trips that would lift a pressurized passenger capsule 20 miles into the upper stratosphere to what is called "near space." One would not experience weightlessness (and the sticker price still runs $50,000 per ticket), but a participant would see stars and the Earth's curvature against the blackness of space.
