Balloons may carry next round of space tourists
OCT 23, 2013
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.027442
Washington Post : Among the growing number of startup companies in space tourism is World View Enterprises , which plans to offer a four-hour flight in a capsule lifted by a balloon 19 miles (31 km) up into the stratosphere. Although that is not considered to be outer space, it does qualify as “near space"—above plane flights and below the orbits of satellites. World View CEO Jane Poynter says the trip will cost $75 000 and the first launch could take place in 2016. “There are balloons this size that have already flown up many, many times for decades,” Poynter said. “From a technical point of view this is incredibly doable, low risk.”
© 2013 American Institute of Physics
