French start-up Zephalto is offering voyages in its Space capsule, lifted by a stratospheric balloon as high as 25 kilometres above the ground. That’s twice as high as the average commercial jet.
The capsule has a large panorama window, and can carry eight people, comprising six passengers and two pilots. The whole journey aboard the vessel, known as the Celeste, takes six hours, and it will only set you back €120,000 (£106,000).
Travellers even get a luxury culinary experience, with meals cooked by famous French chefs served before the flight. Then, during the flight, they drink wine selected by a renowned sommelier.
At its peak height, the capsule is surrounded by the darkness of Space, and passengers should be able to see the curvature of the Earth. But unlike flights in Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket New Shepard, which takes participants more than 100 kilometres above the Earth’s surface, gravity is not lost.
“We choose 25 kilometres high because it’s the altitude where you are in the darkness of Space, with 98% of the atmosphere below you, so you can enjoy the curvature of the Earth in the blue line,” Zephalto founder Vincent Farret d’Astiès told Bloomberg. “You’re in the darkness of Space, but without the zero-gravity experience.”
The luxurious journey can even be accompanied by music of the passenger’s choice, or they can opt for “Space silence”.
The balloon itself is filled with helium and hydrogen.
Booking is now open for the first journeys, which are due to take place in 2025. A deposit of €10,000 is required to secure each place on board.
There is no age limit, and no required training to board the Celeste. As long as a person is fit for flying on an airplane, they can join the voyage.
Mr Farret d’Astiès told Bloomberg he was planning on running 60 flights a year.
It is not the only company offering tourists a taste of Space in the coming years. Rival American firm Space Perspectives has its own balloon journeys, set to begin in 2024.
Meanwhile, Blue Origin is expecting to resume tourist flights by the end of this year.
Researchers have raised fears that the burgeoning Space tourism industry will have a greater impact on the climate than aviation.
Zephalto markets itself as a less-impactful way to see the Earth from on high, saying it offers the least-polluting way to reach the stratosphere.
