Space tourists may soon be able to travel by balloon

Telegraph : A Spanish entrepreneur has developed a helium balloon that will take space tourists into Earth’s stratosphere. With a diameter measuring 129 meters, the huge " bloon ” can climb to a height of 36 000 kilometers, where the blackness of space can be seen above and the curvature of Earth below. Its pressurized cabin accommodates up to four passengers and two pilots, who spend three hours cruising, before a parachute deploys to fly the pod back to Earth. Bloon is the first project of Jose Mariano Lopez-Urdiales’s company zero2infinity , which was founded in 2009 “on a vision for a more sustainable and ethical spaceflight.” According to Lopez-Urdiales, “Going up into the earth’s stratosphere in a balloon is a lot cheaper than doing it by rocket. You get to spend much more time high above and there is no engine noise.” He expects to fly the first mission with people aboard in 2013.