As the song went, Up Up and Away in my Beautiful, My Beautiful Balloon, may soon be more than a 1967 anthem by The Fifth Dimension.
Pretty soon, it may not just be astronauts going into space.
A Florida based space flight company, Space Perspective, has announced its plan to take passengers into the cosmos, using the latest in space-exploration technology. For those already eager to leave earth, Space Perspective is already taking reservations for $125,000 per seat.
Want to take a date along, it’ll cost you a cool quarter-million dollars.
Jane Poynter, co-founder, and Space Perspectives CEO says, “We’re committed to fundamentally changing the way people have access to space – both to perform much-needed research to benefit life on earth and to affect how we view and connect with our planet. Today, it is more crucial than ever to see earth as a planet, a spaceship for all humanity and our global biosphere.”
Neptune, a prototype vessel, is set to launch for a test flight in early 2021, and can take eight passengers, who will be called “explorers.”
The capsule will also contain research payloads, and will be based at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Flordia.
The company will also be working closely with the academic and scientific community to conduct tests and measurements related to atmospheric science, astro and solar physics, and astrobiology.
Once explorers go airborn, they will elevate for two hours, above 99% of the planet’s atmosphere, until they reach the edge of space, reportedly 100,000 feet above the earth’s surface.
Then in the final leg of the journey, the craft will float above the earth for another two hours, giving its riders ample time to marvel at the beauty of the earth and the solar system.
On the way down, Neptune’s descent will last two-hours.
There is only one way to wrap up a story like this, with the poetry of the late-great David Bowie from his epic song Space Oddity
Ground Control to Major Tom
Ground Control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on
Ground Control to Major Tom (ten, nine, eight, seven, six)
Commencing countdown, engines on (five, four, three)
Check ignition and may God's love be with you (two, one, liftoff)
This is Ground Control to Major Tom
You've really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear
Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare
"This is Major Tom to Ground Control
I'm stepping through the door
And I'm floating in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today
For here
Am I sitting in a tin can
Far above the world
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do
Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles…