A commercial spaceflight party that want to send citizenry on balloon - power capsule slip to the edge of distance has discharge a prototype psychometric test of its ambitious endeavor .
On October 24 , 2015,World View Enterprises – establish in Arizona , where the test also took place – send a one - tenth scale replication of the final fomite to a top of 30,625 meters ( 100,475 groundwork ) using a mellow - altitude balloon filled with He . Now , the company is working towards its destination of send human race eminent into the sky by 2017 .
“ This test flight is symbolic of a major step towards a new era of accessible outer space locomotion for us all , ” CEO and co - father Jane Poynter say in a argument . Of course , this vehicle will not actually be going to space – defined as the Karman telephone line , 100 kilometer ( 62 mile ) up . However , what it will do is still pretty telling .
check into out a television of the run flight above . World View .
World View is buildinglarger capsulesfor passenger to travel high into the sky , from where they will be afforded horizon of the curvature of Earth . Each Voyager capsule , weighing 4,500 kilo ( 10,000 Irish punt ) , will be carried upwards by a football game pitch - sized balloon , demand no more than two hours to uprise to its maximum elevation of 30 kilometre ( 19 miles ) .
Here , the Voyager abridgement will then float for two hours , giving those on board a arresting persuasion of Earth , while the ship’s company even has plans to have a barroom on add-in so they can love a potable . Do n’t worry , there ’s a throne as well , and even Wi - Fi .
The abridgment then detaches from the balloon and a parasail extend , have it off as the ParaWing , which a pilot on board can use to steer the capsule back to the ground anywhere up to 480 kilometers ( 300 miles ) from the original launch site . The total time of the flight is up to six hour .
auditory sensation unbelievable ? Well , this late successful test proved the entire conception , albeit with a 10 % scaled adaptation . But the ship’s company is confident that the first planned human trajectory in just two old age can be accomplish . Full - graduated table unmanned trial are expected in the coming months .
“ While each case-by-case system has been analyzed and extensively test in previous exam flights , this meaning milepost reserve us to test and raise all critical flying organisation at once , ” say Chief Technology Officer and Centennial State - father Taber MacCallum in the instruction . “ Now we ’re ready for the next major form of development – full scale system testing . ”
MacCullum told IFLScience that the pilot on the first human flight of stairs would likely be former NASA astronautMark Kelly , whose twin brother Scott is currently taking part in the“Year In Space”mission on the ISS . “ The process to aviate and bring the capsule wo n’t be unlike flying the Space Shuttle , ” aver MacCullum . “ Both are fundamentally vainglorious sailplane , with which Mark already has extended experience . "
A ticket aboard aVoyager capsulewill cost you $ 75,000 ( £ 50,000 ) , significantly less than other high - elevation commercial effort such as Richard Branson ’s Virgin Galactic , but still plain too dear for many . Nonetheless , ab initio expensive space tourism ventures like this could make infinite – or at least near - space – more accessible and hopefully drive the price down in the future .
Image : The scaled trial run flight of steps on October 24 . World View .
