A new company is about to enter sub-orbital flight tourism. After Blue Origin, which proposed a classic way to reach suborbital space using a vertical launching system, and Virgin Galactic, which launches a space plane from an aircraft, Space Perspective is about to write a new chapter in space tourism using a High-altitude balloon called SpaceBalloon.
This Neptune test capsule is named Excelsior in honor of the late 1950s Project Excelsior, a pioneering high-altitude balloon flight program led by Joe Kittinger.
This spherical capsule has a diameter of 4.9 meters and a pressurized volume of 60 cubic meters, about twice the volume of Virgin Galactic’s Spaceship Two and Blue Origin’s New Shepard, and about four times that of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.
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The flight
Space Perspective proposes a carbon-neutral suborbital flight; instead of accelerating with high-energy rockets, Neptune uses a high-altitude balloon containing hydrogen.
The volume of the SpaceBalloon is 510,000 cubic meters when fully expanded. When the suborbital vehicle is ready for launch, the SpaceBalloon is about 210 meters tall, taller than the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center.
Takeoff will take place at sea on a large launch vessel called Marine Spaceport Voyager which is being retrofitted to use low-carbon biofuel; instead, the landing will take place at sea.
The use of seaports allows ideal conditions for launching in two ways: by sailing to areas of good weather, which allow year-round operation within a region, and by moving with the sea breeze, so that there is virtually no wind on deck. This provides more frequent launch opportunities and more time-of-day options, including night flights for stargazing at sunrise and sunset.
The flight takes six hours from launch to landing. Neptune capsule, with a crew of eight passengers and a pilot, needs two hours to reach 31 kilometers of apogee where it remains for another two hours before beginning its descent.
Weightlessness, which is the result of freefall, will not be experienced by passengers because Neptune’s movement is really slow, so this will be a very different experience compared to that of other companies. The ride is very comfortable, during the flight it will be possible to consume food from the bar on board, there will also be a bathroom and a wifi connection.
Finally, landing and recovery will take place in the sea; a splash cone at the base of the capsule allows a soft landing on water.
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Design & Manufacturing
The distinctive spherical exterior shape of the capsule not only creates an effective pressure vessel, but also allows engineers to create a light and strong structure while maximizing interior space.
Space Perspective also opted for repeating vertical windows to provide a continuous panoramic view, avoiding horizontal windows that would have bifurcate the view to the human eye compromising natural and continuous visual perception.
A unique feature is that Space Perspective takes a fully integrated approach to its manufacturing, managing the capsule’s design, production, testing, and operational phases in-house. This integration includes a sophisticated carbon composite manufacturing facility with state-of-the-art process control, a materials testing laboratory, and a hangar dedicated to capsule integration.
In addition, the company designs and builds in-house electrical systems, flight power systems, software, mission control, and environmental and life support systems, including atmospheric and thermal control systems. Space balloons are also manufactured at the SpaceBalloon manufacturing facility owned by Space Perspective.
Every key component of Space Perspective’s suborbital vehicle is covered by patents, including the SpaceBalloon, the method of launching from the ship, the reserve descent system, the radiator technology for heat dissipation, the capsule structure with vertical windows, and the splash cone. This last, in addition to mitigating the capsule’s descent velocity for a gentle landing in the ocean, later takes on the function of a sea anchor, helping to stabilize the capsule.
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Comparison with other companies’ services
The closest competitors with Space Perspective are Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, which offer rides to suborbital space.
The first major difference concerns altitude: the Neptune spacecraft can reach an altitude of 31 kilometers, while Virgin Galactic’s space plane and the Blue Origin New Shepard reach an altitude of 86 and 100 kilometers, respectively; so the landscape is very different.
Another difference is about duration, a flight on the New Shepard from takeoff to landing takes only 11 minutes including 3 or 4 minutes in weightlessness; a flight on the Virgin Galactic space plane lasts a total of 90 minutes, 4 or 6 of which are in weightlessness. The duration of a Space Perspective flight is 6 hours, two of them in apogee, but without ever being weightless.
However, the difference in takeoff and landing operations, makes the Space Perspective experience the only one accessible to any physical condition. In fact, no weightlessness or strong g-forces are experienced, and no training is required.
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