A company called World View has the idea that spacecrafts can be hoisted to space by gigantic helium balloons and is touring it as a cost-effective way to bring tourists to the edge of space beginning in 2017. Recently, World View began its first major test flight, using a smaller-scale model that carried a replica spacecraft.
The plan is to use a football stadium-sized balloon to carry up to six passengers at an altitude of 100,000 feet inside a 4-ton space capsule. This is about 40 miles beneath the sub-orbital space but still high enough so that pasengers can see the curve of Earth as well as the blackness of space, noted Engadget. The test flight was successfully completed, and it reached 100,475 feet.
"While each individual system has been analyzed and extensively tested in previous test flights, this significant milestone allowed us to test and prove all critical flight systems at once. Now we're ready for the next major phase of development - full-scale system testing," Taber MacCallum, CTO and co-founder of World View, said in an official statement.
Once the proposed flight reaches its destination, it will cruise for a couple of hours or so. Afterwards, it will proceed on a gentle descent by gradually venting the helium gas from the balloon, Space reported. The process will involve the separation of balloon and capsule. The latter will maneuver a soft landing with the help of a device called parafoil.The flight - which is expected to last from five to six hours - will cost passengers $250,000 or $100,000 for its SpaceShipTwo and Lynx capsules, respectively.
