THE SPACE RACE!
THE BURGEONING SPACE TOURISM MARKET AND THE RISE OF NEXT-GENERATION AIRSHIPS HAS MORE IN COMMON WITH THE YACHTING INDUSTRY THAN YOU MIGHTTHINK, REVEALS STEVE MAY
Star Trek icon William Shatner emotionally described his trip to the edge of space atop Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket as “the most profound experience.” The 90-year-old actor was moved to tears as he recounted his 11-minute journey with Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos. “I’m so filled with emotion about what just happened, ” he said.
Bucket lists the world over have been upgraded. The promise of such an extraordinary experience is helping power a boom in space tourism. Bezos has already sold more than $130 million in tickets for future rides into the unknown.
While New Shepard skirts the von Karman line, which at 60 miles up is where humans are untethered from gravity, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is pushing higher and faster. The company has already taken astronauts and private citizens to the International Space Station, and Musk envisages ferrying many more back to the moon on board his gigantic Starship rocket.
Scheduled to fly in 2024, Space Perspective will take adventurers to the edge of space, albeit in a degree more comfort than in the spacecraft of Bezos, Musk or Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic program. Space Perspective’s Neptune One space capsule will gracefully ascend to 100,000ft at 12 miles per hour – slow enough to appreciate the curved horizon of Mother Earth, before returning to terra firma at a similar pace.
There are no G-forces to withstand, and no weighdessness to contend with. Instead, travelers will be cocooned in luxury, says Space Perspective founder and co-CEO Jane Poynter. The inaugural Space Perspective trip will take about six hours – plenty of time to order cocktails as you soak up the astonishing view.
