by Founded in 2019, Space Perspective plans to send tourists to the edge of the Earth’s upper atmosphere in a capsule propelled by a high-altitude balloon the size of the Statue of Liberty.
Space Perspective says its views will be comparable to those experienced by passengers on Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, which also have plans to drive paying customers into space. However, there are differences. Space Perspective Passengers won’t experience G-Force, zero gravity, or rocket propulsion, for example, and it reaches lower altitudes than its competitors.
“We are passionate about revolutionizing the way people access space – to carry out much-needed research to benefit life on Earth and to impact the way we view and connect with our planet ,” says founder and CEO, Jane Poynter.
“Today, it is more important than ever to see Earth as an interconnected planet, a spaceship for all humanity and our global biosphere. This expanded view of our world is the life changing view that astronauts talk about when they see the Earth in space. This is the Spatial Insight.”
So how does Space Vision compare to Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic? Let’s take a look.
How long is the trip?
Space Insight passengers arrive at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, have a safety briefing and tour the facilities, then prepare for a six-hour space flight. The capsule goes up at night, allowing passengers to experience the blackness of space, before the sun rises allowing those on board to see the curvature of the Earth and the thin blue line of the atmosphere. A Virgin Galactic space flight lasts about 90 minutes to two hours, but Blue Origin’s rocket-propelled experience is much shorter – about 11 minutes.
Verdict: At six hours you’re getting a lot more bang (and by that, we mean life-affirming views from the edge of space) for your buck.
How much does it cost?
On the subject of buck. To secure your place on a Space Insight flight you will need to make a $1,000 (£793) refundable deposit. The total price is a maximum of $125,000 per passenger (£99,031). By comparison, tickets for a seat on Virgin Galactic cost $450,000 (£356,000). A seat on a Blue Origin subsonic flight is predicted to cost anywhere between $300,000 (£237,000) and $400,000 (£316,000).
Verdict: Space Perspective is certainly a more cost-effective way to tick the edge of Earth’s atmosphere.
What’s it like in the cabin?
You’ll be in the cabin (called Neptune) with eight other passengers, plus a pilot, which means there’s the option to block the entire capsule for special occasions if you’ve got a million dollars to spare. The unique selling point of the Space Perspective is that the “space lounge” – 16 feet in diameter – has room for passengers to get up and move around. Having a fully stocked bar and culinary experience on board is essential. Space Perspective also has music on board, high-speed wi-fi and video cameras filming the entire journey. Oh, and there’s a loo with a view, too. Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin cabins have more of a spaceship vibe, and definitely don’t have a bar, or loo area.
Verdict: Space Perspective is definitely the winner here. The cabin has a fully stocked bar on the edge of the space, for crying out loud. The presence of wi-fi, however, could be argued to be a negative. If you’re ever going to take a six-hour break from Gary Lineker’s tweets, it should probably be here.
Is it underweight?
Because there’s no free fall, but the craft takes off at a brisk 12 mph, you’ll experience good old-fashioned gravity during your Space Insight flight. Both Galactic Virgin and Blue Origin offer zero gravity for a few minutes. There is a debate on social media as to whether Space Perspective can accurately describe its journey as entering “space”, given its maximum altitude, but we won’t go into that here.
Verdict: It depends on what you’re into, but if you’re spending your life savings on going into space (or close to it), you might want to swim around at least a little?
What will I be able to see?
Space Insight reaches its highest point at 30km (100,000ft) altitude, and will remain there for two hours. At this height you will be able to see 450 miles in every direction – so around all of Florida. Note that the windows on Space View are “the largest ever flown in space”, allowing for nearly 360-degree panoramic views of Earth. By comparison, Galactic Virgo reaches an altitude of 88km (290,000 feet), and a test flight of Blue Origin reached 100km (330,000 feet), passing the Kármán Line, which is the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and suborbital space. Virgin Galactic has windows the size of a bog while Blue Origin’s pod has slightly larger rectangular windows.
Verdict? The Space Perspective goes high, about three times the height of an average commercial flight, but not nearly as high as a Galactic Virgin or Blue Origin. So the views won’t be as impressive. But the windows are bigger, which is something. And don’t forget the bar.
Is it energy efficient?
Space Vision will certainly be more energy efficient than the efforts of Virgin Atlantic and Blue Origin. Because the Space Perspective requires no rocket fuel, relying instead on a hydrogen balloon larger than the Statue of Liberty that “floats, like an ice cube floating on water”, it claims to run on emissions almost zero. However, the SpaceBalloon can only be used once and is recycled after each flight, and the operations still have carbon emissions, which Space Perspective says offsets.
Verdict: Any way you look at it, Space Perspective has a smaller carbon footprint than Branson and Bezos’ projects.
Is it safe?
NASA and other research institutions around the world have been using similar balloons since the 1950s, with Space Perspective saying that the core technology has “been flown safely to over 100,000 feet more than a thousand times” and that is “inherently safe”. They also say it can’t be popped. “In the unlikely event that there is a hole in the balloon envelope, it descends very slowly and floats down to a safe landing,” they say. Describing its use of hydrogen fuel, rather than helium, the Space Perspective says: “Hydrogen has been shown to be a safe gas for use in balloons, in fact thousands of manned balloons have been flown using hydrogen since the beginning of flight in the 1700s. not a single recorded flight incident attributed to hydrogen.” Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin have also launched successful space flights with their respective CEOs on board.
Verdict: They’ll all have excellent health and safety records by the time you’re on board, but floating up in a Space Perspective balloon is less risky than boarding something that rockets to higher altitudes.
What happens when it lands?
Space Insight describes its landing as a “flat ocean splashdown”. The capsule is then “raised quickly from the sea and placed on the ship’s deck, where explorers will board and return to celebrate.” Blue Origin’s rocket shuttle takes off vertically and then also lands vertically. A Virgin Galactic space plane lands on a runway like an airplane.
Verdict: Splashdown sounds a little exciting, doesn’t it? The option to land on a runway like a plane with Virgin Galactic is probably the nicest option for nervous airplanes.
Will it really happen?
Space Perspective says it hopes to conduct test flights in the next few months, and plans to send its first paying customers into space by early 2025. Whether it makes that date, of course, depends on the outcome of test flights. Virgin Galactic successfully launched paying passengers into space in August 2023 after Branson embarked on the first fully crewed flight in 2021, after years of delays. Blue Origin flew its first sub-orbital space flight in July 2021. Neither regular passenger service into space operates, yet.
Verdict: Watch this space.
