Space tourism company Space Perspective has unveiled the design for its new passenger capsule, a vehicle it hopes will bring adventurers up to the edge of space via gigantic, towering balloon, as soon as 2025.
What is Space Perspective? The company’s goal is to fly crews to an altitude of approximately 100,000 feet (about 30 km) using its pressurized capsule known as Spaceship Neptune, suspended beneath an enormous “SpaceBalloon.”
Unlike traditional launch vehicles like rockets, this approach is much gentler, with passengers experiencing no crushing g-forces as they rise above Earth at a comparatively leisurely 12 mph. The entire journey will take about six hours, including a two-hour “cruise” phase at maximum altitude.
The newly revealed passenger cabin features 360-degree panoramic windows, mood lighting, a bar, and even a bathroom – luxuries not found on most spacecraft. Each trip will accommodate eight passengers and a pilot, with tickets already selling for $125,000 per person.
While passengers won’t technically reach “space” (the internationally recognized boundary starts at the Kármán line, 100 km above Earth), they’ll experience breathtaking views of our planet’s curvature against the darkness of space.
“Our team is creating an incredibly special space that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world,” said Jane Poynter, Space Perspective’s founder. “The cabin’s design centers on making the journey as comfortable and memorable as possible.”
Space Perspective joins companies like Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic in the emerging space tourism industry, though with a very different technical approach focused on accessibility rather than achieving high orbital velocities.
