14 DAY TRIAL // World View, a private spaceflight company based in Arizona, US, claims to have successfully tested a technology that it hopes will allow it to fly people into space in just a few years.
Information shared with the public says that what World View has in mind is to create so-called space-tourism balloons that folks can board in exchange for $75,000 (€55,127), and then sit back, relax, and enjoy the view.
According to Space, it was late last week, on June 18, when World View managed to launch a scaled-down version of its innovative spaceflight system from the Roswell International Air Center in New Mexico.
The same source tells us that, by the looks of it, this scaled-down version of the company's imagined space-tourism balloon performed quite well, meaning that it reached an altitude of about 23 miles (approximately 37 kilometers).
Despite the fact that the prototype space-balloon tested in New Mexico this past June 18 is about 10% the size of the spaceflight systems World View hopes to eventually build, the company is confident it will manage to replicate these results.
Thus, the Arizona-based company promises that, when it finally debuts commercial flights, the altitude that its customers will get to experience will too be one of about 23 miles (37 km). Otherwise put, passengers will get their money's worth.
Commenting on how well the prototype space-tourism balloon performed while undergoing tests in New Mexico, Jane Poynter, World View's current CEO, said, “We couldn't be any more excited about the results from this test flight.”
“It represents a foundational achievement that moves us one step closer to offering a life-changing experience to our Voyagers [company customers]. We want to be able to give that incredible experience to as many people as we can,” Jane Poynter added.
The prototype balloon is said to have spent about five hours floating about close to the edge of space before being brought back on the ground. By the looks of it, the flight system was allowed to freely descend to an altitude of 50,000 feet (15,240 meters), after which a parachute-like wing helped bring it all the way down.
Judging by the progress it has until now made, World View expects that, all things considered, it will manage to debut commercial flights to the edge of space by the year 2016. Not at all surprisingly, the company promises that their customers will have a life-changing experience.
As Jane Poynter put it, “What happens is they turn around and they see Earth and they fall in love with Earth, and it really changes the way they think about things.”