When traveling the world via automobile, yacht, and airplane just becomes absolutely uninteresting and a chore, what are you to do? Well how about traveling to the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere? Commercial space travel is on everybody’s minds these days, and one company is going to do things a little different. They’re called Word View Enterprises and they want to take you as close to outer space as possible by one of the oldest forms of flight known to man: the balloon.
Founded in 2013, World View Enterprises is a small company that is based out of Tucson, Arizona. From the start they’ve always had one goal in mind: to take people to the edges of the atmosphere. Instead of attempting to design, develop, and construct a rocketship/airplane-like craft, they will take you to the edges of Earth via a balloon filled with helium. Unlike other competitors, the helium balloon is a tried and trusted method that has been used plenty of times in the past. Using these high-altitude balloons is a good idea for many reasons. Not only have these balloons made these trips before, but they are more affordable than taking a rocketship, for example.
Passengers will board a small, high-tech pod that is airtight and attached to the balloon. It’s about the size of a small van and it will be able to hold six passengers and two crew members in total. Once everyone boards, the balloon will then be inflated and you will travel up to around 20 miles into the air. While it is not technically outer space, you will be able to see the curvature of the Earth and the blackness of space. It will take about one and a half hours to make the ascent and the you will hover around for about two hours before floating back down to the surface. One trip will run you about $75,000 dollars.
Now most people cannot afford that ticket price, but for the most of us, this trip would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We’re still a ways away from taking a space cruise around the Earth, and this is about as close as we will ever get in the near future. While World View Enterprises has already made a few successful, unmanned test flights, there’s still no word as to when they will start offering rides to the public. So we will still have to wait and see when they will begin the flights, but if you had $75,000 dollars to spend, would you take a trip to the edges of the atmosphere?
Photos from worldviewexperience.com
