Learn what to expect on your ride to the edge of space aboard Space Perspective's Spaceship Neptune capsule. CEO Jane Poynter explains what the high-altitude balloon ride is like.
Credit: Space.com | Space Perspective | produced & edited by Steve Spaleta and Josh Dinner
Credit: Space.com | Space Perspective | produced & edited by Steve Spaleta and Josh Dinner
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00:00We're going to be taking unprecedented numbers of people to space.
00:06If you can get on a commercial airplane, you can get on spaceship Neptune.
00:11That actually opens up the market enormously
00:15to people who otherwise don't feel comfortable going on a rocket
00:19or just simply can't go on a rocket,
00:21but still want that extraordinary experience of seeing our Earth from space.
00:25We are about to enter a rigorous set of test flights.
00:30And so you see so many stations here because it's engineers that are sitting in a lot of these
00:36because they're monitoring their own systems during the flights.
00:39We launch from a ship and we splash in the ocean.
00:44So imagine this, you get up early in the morning.
00:46Maybe you've slept overnight on the ship.
00:49You get up, it's dark out.
00:51You step into this beautifully appointed, very comfortable capsule.
00:54You're handed your beverage of choice as you sit down and strap yourself in
00:57for about the first 15 minutes of flight.
00:59So when the spaceship is released from the deck,
01:03there's a 600 foot tall balloon standing up above you.
01:08The entire vehicle very gently lifts off the deck.
01:12It's going to space at 12 miles an hour.
01:15This is literally the opposite of rocket flight.
01:18It's very slow.
01:19So it takes you two hours to get up there,
01:21but that's also part of the beauty of this,
01:24is that you can take it all in and you're not having to withstand all that,
01:28which some people love, but not everybody.
01:30So it takes you a couple of hours to get up there.
01:33Then you'll start to see the sunrise over the horizon,
01:37the curved horizon of our planet.
01:40And then you'll see the thin blue line of our atmosphere.
01:42It's that stark blackness of space and the sun in the black sky.
01:46I mean, it's just going to be mind-blowing for people.
01:49And if you've talked to astronauts, as I'm sure you have,
01:51about what's often called the overview effect,
01:54it is transformational for a lot of people.
01:56So we are giving people a lot of time to be up there,
01:59a couple of hours, so they can really absorb this experience,
02:03celebrate with a drink from our bar,
02:06whatever beverage you would like to have.
02:08Of course, there will also be food along the way.
02:10And we have a loo and Wi-Fi, so you can be telling everybody back home
02:14what's going on during your flight.
02:16And then there'll be a two-hour journey back down,
02:18splash down in the ocean, super safe way to do this.
02:21So you go up under the balloon and down under the balloon,
02:24no transfer to another kind of flight vehicle,
02:27which makes it a seamless experience and super safe.
02:30The vehicle, another ship is right there,
02:33picks the capsule up out of the water, puts it on the deck.
02:36Everybody disembarks within about 15 minutes of splash.
02:40We're planning to have crewed flights this year.
02:42The current plan is that we do roughly 10 flights uncrewed,
02:46and then we have a series of flights that are crewed,
02:49and then we get into commercial operations
02:51around the end of 24, early 25.