What: Space Perspective Debuts Mobile, Marine-Based Launch Site for Space Travel Experiences
Space Perspective — which plans to start operating its luxury spaceflight experiences in late 2024 — has debuted the Marine Spaceport (MS) Voyager, the first Marine Spaceport for human spaceflight. Voyager is a 29-foot-long ship that is being outfitted to serve as a site for launching and receiving spacecraft out of Port Canaveral, Fla.; the company has plans to eventually debut a fleet of similar Spaceports globally. Guests travel in Space Perspective’s Spaceship Neptune (seats cost $125,000 per person) — powered by its SpaceBalloon — enjoying 360-degree views as they ascend slowly and smoothly above Earth.
MS Voyager, a converted ship, will serve as a mobile, marine-based launch pad for spaceflights.
Credit: 2022 Space Perspective
Why It Matters: Leisure Space Travel Is Getting Closer to Its Debut
Leisure space travel is taking another step toward becoming a reality. Space Perspective’s Marine Spaceports give the company the flexibility to operate in a variety of locations, as well as to navigate to areas of good weather for launches, enabling more frequent spaceflight opportunities. What’s more, the company’s SpaceBalloon is a carbon-neutral approach to space travel, operating without the use of rocket fuel and recycled after each trip, making it a more sustainable and environmentally friendly option than other emerging space travel offerings.
Fast Facts: What Does Space Perspective Do?
- Space Perspective offers a six-hour space travel journey that includes a two-hour ascent, two hours at the experience’s 100,000-foot summit (above 99% of Earth’s atmosphere) and a two-hour descent.
- Guests can take off from MS Voyager or from land on Florida’s Space Coast.
- Spaceship Neptune climbs slowly and smoothly, without high G forces and with plenty of time to take in the surrounding sights.
Space travelers will enjoy a comfortable experience inside Spaceship Neptune.
Credit: 2022 Space Perspective- Upon its return to Earth, Neptune makes a water landing (which the company describes as “smooth and gentle”), before being stabilized by support boats and then lifted onto the Marine Spaceport.
- Space Perspective’s plans to use a fleet of mobile marine launch sites also enables travelers to see a variety of unique natural phenomena from space, such as the Northern Lights, the scale of the Nile Delta, the deep blue seas around the Bahamas and more.
- Voyager will begin operations in the new year, in time for Space Perspective’s plans to commence test flights in early 2023.
What They Are Saying: Space Perspective Has a Global Mindset and a Sustainable Mission
“Space Perspective will change your relationship with our planet by providing the quintessential astronaut experience of viewing Earth from the blackness of space,” said Jane Poynter, founder and co-CEO of Space Perspective. “It’s imperative for us to think about our business with a global mindset. Removing geographic borders for launch and landing accelerates our mission of making this transformative experience more accessible to the world and international marketplace — safely, reliably and with minimal impact on our planet.”
