The company World View will begin to offer balloon rides to space this coming 2024. This flight will take passengers to the Earth's stratosphere, where the travelers will see the Earth's curvature.
According to Gizmodo, the Arizona-based company shifted its focus to uncrewed balloons known as stratollites, which can send imaging and communications equipment to high altitudes for weeks at a time.
In addition, World View is back in the space tourism game.
World View Enterprises said on Oct. 4 that by 2024, it will be ready to offer commercial balloon flights to the stratosphere. The company's announcement happened when the space sector flourished, with private corporations like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and others launching low-Earth orbit missions.
Read Also: China Challenges SpaceX with Space Themed Park by Sending Visitors to the Lower Stratosphere
World View's Balloon Rides to Space
As reported by Space, World View has announced that it would begin offering flights to the Earth's stratosphere, from which travelers will be able to view our Earth's natural curvature.
Although balloons can't go into space, balloons could fly the highest to get close enough to see the curvature of the Earth and the darkness of space. Airplanes generally fly in the stratosphere, which is the second layer of the Earth's atmosphere.
The massive parafoil or balloon will lift the travelers to a height of 19 miles, and World View hopes that travelers will have a space-like feeling in this experience.
The standard journey would last 6-12 hours and will transport passengers to an altitude of at least 100,000 feet (30,000 meters), where they will be able to witness the Earth's curvature against the darkness of space. World View stated that the entire experience will last five days and will take place in and among natural beauty, cultural and historical landmarks.
World View Price
World View's balloon ride to space would be made possible with a cost of $50,000 and a $500 reservation deposit.
They have a grandiose objective of taking passengers to multiple destinations such as the Grand Canyon, Peru's Amazon rainforest, Norway's northern coast, Egypt's Giza pyramids, Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Mongolia's Great Wall, and Kenya's Serengeti plains.
World View plans to launch passenger flights from these seven destinations worldwide and calls them its own Seven Wonders of the World. World View is entering a growing and bustling market -- one that transports paying consumers to various altitudes.
Space Tourism
World View is not the only company exploring the space tourism field nowadays. Companies like Virgin Galactic, owned by Richard Branson, SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, and Blue Origin, owned by Jeff Bezos, are also in the market of selling interplanetary flights to suborbital space on rocket-powered spacecraft to altitudes of roughly 62 miles or 100 kilometers, which requires a considerable amount of money.
The current price of a ticket for Virgin Galactic's interplanetary flights is approximately $450,000. However, contending company Blue Origin hasn't released its price list yet, but it's likely to be similar to, if not more expensive than that of Virgin Galactic.
Related Article: Virgin Galactic Stock Price Blasts Off Ahead of Richard Branson Space Flight; Billionaire Founder Goes to TikTok To Promote Epic Travel!
