Florida-based space tourism company Space Perspective has successfully completed the first full, uncrewed test flight of its luxury balloon-lifted capsule to the edge of Earth's atmosphere.
Spaceship Neptune Excelsior, the first of the company's teardrop-shaped pressure pods, lifted off from Space Perspective's Marine Spaceport (MS) Voyager vessel off the coast of Saint Petersburg, Florida, on Sept. 15. and completed its first full flight test from takeoff to landing. Over the course of six hours, Space Perspective's trademarked "SpaceBalloon" ascent system carried Excelsior to an altitude of approximately 100,000 feet (30,480 meters) before its slow descent to a safe ocean splashdown and recovery.
If all continues smoothly through Excelsior's remaining tests, Space Perspective founder and CEO Jane Poynter says the first crewed test flights will begin in 2025, with her and her husband, Space Perspective co-founder and CTO Taber MacCallum aboard. "I am undoubtedly going to be on one of the first, if not the first human flight that we do. You've got to believe it," Poynter told Space.com.
The test flight marks a major milestone for Space Perspective, which completed construction on its first Spaceship Neptune capsule last February. MacCallum, who described the flight as a "defining moment" for the company, said in a press release that the flight "not only proves our pioneering technology but also brings us a giant leap closer to making space accessible for everyone and reaffirms our belief in the transformative power of space travel."
Related: Space Perspective unveils 'Space Spa' restroom for balloon tourist flights (images)
Unlike other space tourism companies strapping their passengers into capsules blasting off on top of rockets, Space Perspective offers a softer, much gentler ride to the skies above our planet. Their Spaceship Neptune capsule hosts a luxurious interior where up to eight customers can relax, with a beverage service, as they slowly ascend to heights where the curvature of the Earth can be seen from their ergonomically cushioned seats.
Stretched to a staggering 600 feet (183 meters) above the Spaceship Neptune capsule, Space Perspective's balloon, hand-stitched with load-bearing tape and carbon filaments, is pumped with buoyant hydrogen to ascend the pod to just 230,000 feet (70,100 meters) shy of the Kármán line — the internationally recognized boundary where space begins.
And while Space Perspective's Spaceship Neptune capsule isn't technically lifted above Earth's atmosphere, the company touts the pod design as, "the largest spaceflight capsule ever flown, with the largest windows ever flown," according to the release.
Though upcoming Spaceship Neptune capsules are designed for the comfort of Space Perspective's customers, Excelsior was instead outfitted for testing, with a host of sensors and strain gauges to measure every detail of data during the vehicle's first flights. The completion of the capsule's first full flight last week also validated Space Perspective's mission control software and communication procedures, coordinating the balloon's launch and retrieval protocols from their headquarters in Titusville, Florida.
The company currently has more than 1,800 ticket holders who have reserved seats aboard Spaceship Neptune, with customer flights expected to begin sometime late next year, or early 2026. Currently, a seat aboard Space Perspective's luxurious space-lift costs $125,000, but future company plans for a larger capsule to accomodate a higher number of passengers may reduce that price "somewhere well below $100,000," Poynter says.
