Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Ride with a view: Firm to offer balloon excursions to stratosphere
World View Enterprises, Inc. released illustrations of the pressurized capsule.
World View pressurized capsules would take about 90 minutes to two hours to reach peak altitude, more than twice as high as where commercial jets fly.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — Hoping to cash in on a growing appetite for adventure, an Arizona startup has unveiled plans for a balloon ride to the stratosphere, offering passengers about two hours of space-like views from 19 miles above Earth.
Privately owned World View, an offshoot of Paragon Space Development Corp., plans to start selling tickets at $75,000 per person within a few months, said Chairwoman and President Jane Poynter.
The company expects to begin flight tests of a demonstration vehicle this year in Arizona and could be flying passengers within three years, Poynter said.
Initially, six passengers and two pilots would be aboard a pressurized capsule that is still under development. The Federal Aviation Administration has determined it must meet the same safety requirements as a manned spacecraft orbiting Earth.
"At Paragon's intended altitude, water and blood boil, and an unprotected person would rapidly experience fatal decompression," the FAA, which oversees commercial spaceflight in the United States, wrote in a letter Paragon provided to Reuters.
The FAA said it took no position as to whether an altitude of 30 kilometers constitutes outer space, but that Paragon's capsule will need to be capable of operating in space.
Read Full Article Source here
Author:
By Irene Klotz of Reuters
0 comments:
Post a Comment