Go to space to see Earth for a "cheap" cost of 72,000 USD

Not long ago, the idea of ​​traveling to the edge of space and back was considered far-fetched. But now people are selling tickets to fly in hot air balloons 30km up, where visitors can gaze out at the Earth and the planets.

An American company is behind the daring project, which wants to send eight tourists to the edge of space in a safe capsule attached to a helium-filled balloon in 2016.

Photo of Earth from satellite in space (Source: DM)

Although the capsule is specially designed with a pressurized interior to make passengers feel as normal as they would on the ground, they may still feel a bit dizzy when they pay for their tickets.

The flight lasted more than eight and a half hours and cost $72,000 per seat.

However, visitors will be able to see the curve of the Earth and experience a few moments of weightlessness. They will also enjoy delicious cocktails served by the bar on the balloon and send back to the ground "selfies" taken with the stars, to the envy of their friends, thanks to the wifi network on the balloon.

"We want to give visitors the experience of looking at the Earth from space for hours, seeing the curve of the Earth and other things," said Jane Poynter, CEO of Arizona-based World View Enterprises.

The balloon, filled with 1.1 million cubic metres of helium, will take off from billionaire Richard Branson's spaceport in the New Mexico desert.

It will take 2 hours to reach an altitude of 30km, where the sky turns dark. Then the balloon will float in the stratosphere, allowing passengers to enjoy the view of our blue planet below, as well as the countless stars above.

After the spacewalk, the capsule will detach from the balloon and return to Earth, using its glider. Natural weightlessness in space is usually only experienced at altitudes of 100km or more, but Poynter says that during the capsule’s quick 20-minute descent, visitors will have a few seconds to enjoy it.

“Think of it as the ultimate luxury experience,” said Poynter’s husband, Taber McCallum, who serves as the company’s chief technology officer and has designed life support systems for NASA.

The couple spent two years living in isolation together in a simulated space station in Arizona in the 1990s, an experiment to test human habitability on Mars.

The company is one of several companies looking to take ordinary tourists into space, including SpaceShipTwo, a spacecraft that can carry six tourists into low Earth orbit and is being built by Branson’s Virgin Galactic.

"Ten years ago this was science fiction," said Burt Rutan, designer of SPACESHIPONE, the first private spacecraft to fly into space in 2004 and the prototype for Branson's current fleet of spacecraft. "Now it feels like a reality."

According to Vietnamplus