Article content
A Spanish company that aims to take tourists to the edge of space compares its balloon-powered trips to the stratosphere as leisurely “glamping,” as distinct from the more brief, intense and rugged space tourism being offered by the likes of Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin.
HALO Space hopes to have its first commercial flight in 2026, and this month unveiled its pressurized capsule, called Aurora, at a press conference in London, England.
Article content
The capsule — HALO sometimes refers to it as a “spaceship,” though it won’t fly high enough to reach what is generally considered outer space — stands about 3.5 metres tall and five metres wide, with an internal space of about 30 square feet, or 2.8 square metres. Cubic space isn’t measured because — again, unlike rocket-powered space tourism ventures — passengers will not achieve weightlessness during the trip.
Instead, up to eight passengers plus a pilot will embark on a six-hour journey, four of which will be spent in the stratosphere, 35 kilometres above the Earth. That’s high enough to see the blackness of space above, and the distinct curvature of the Earth below.
“It’s meant to be a sort of a glamping experience,” Frank Stephenson, who led the design work for the capsule, said at the press conference. “It’s a high-level experience for these people who are used to flying first class rather than economy.”
Rather than ascend by rocket power, the HALO capsule will be carried under a massive balloon some 140 metres tall. During descent, the balloon will detach from the capsule, which will then be brought down to the ground by a steerable parachute. The paraglider-type parachute was tested last year in a dry lakebed in California.
Article content
Balloon power also means the ascent will be at a leisurely 20 km/h. “The take-off will be like being in an elevator,” HALO CEO Carlos Mira said at the press conference.
If the G-forces aren’t as steep, neither are the prices. Blue Origin is notoriously tight-lipped about the costs of its suborbital space flights — William Shatner flew for free — but Virgin Galactic charges US$450,000 for a flight. HALO is a relative bargain at US$164,000 per ticket, though again, one-third the price gets you about one-third the distance above the Earth — 35 kilometres versus the 100 or so reached by the rocket rides.
HALO also isn’t the only company looking to cash in on the high-altitude balloon market. Florida-based Space Perspective recently unveiled its own “spaceship” (lofted by what it call a “SpaceBalloon”), which it plans to test-fly this year with the ambitious aim of welcoming paying passengers before the end of 2024. It’s advertising a price of US$125,000 per seat.
HALO, meanwhile, lofted a full-sized prototype capsule in late 2022, and expects to complete its first crewed test flight sometime next year.
“When you talk to astronauts, they tell you that this experience of watching the planet from above is really something unique and extraordinary,” Mira said. “So far, only 650 humans have had the opportunity to experience this overview effect. But you don’t need to go all the way to space to have it. We hope to offer this experience to 1,000 people by 2030.”
HALO says it will launch from locations in the Mojave Desert in the U.S., as well as Spain, Australia and Saudi Arabia.
Recommended from Editorial
Share this article in your social network
