How stratospheric balloon flights could be about to redefine space tourism

For many would-be intergalactic tourists, space isn’t the final frontier – Earth is. Frankly, space tourism has, to date, been the preserve of pop stars and the billionaire class, and that’s even with the likes of Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic and SpaceX expanding access to space as never before. But what if there was a more affordable way of getting to space – or, at least, to the very edge of it? That’s the premise behind a number of companies now test-flying gigantic, football-field-sized stratospheric balloons that will lift pressurised, lounge-like capsules – each carrying one or two pilots and six to eight passengers – high enough to see the infinite blackness of space in one direction and the curvature of the Earth in the other. Reaching 25-30km above Earth, they soar well above commercial airliners, which cruise at about 10km above the ground. According to Vincent Farret d’Astiès, the aeronautical engineer behind Zephalto – which works in collaboration with the European Space Agency and Airbus, and expects commercial flights to begin next year – the aim is to democratise space tourism, even if tickets will cost more than US$130,000 a pop. “For one thing, there’s no physical requirement for passengers to be able to fly – anyone can do it,” Farret d’Astiès explains. “There are no g-forces from violent acceleration, no vibrations or incredible noise to contend with [as with a rocket launch]. No training is required. And, as with the first airline flights, we expect prices to drop as more people take flights. We really want to be able to send up as many people as possible.” To date, space tourism has generally meant a suborbital flight providing only a few minutes in space and a brief view of Earth from a relatively small window, notes Carlos Mira, CEO of Halo Space, a start-up aiming for commercial operations by 2029. A space balloon ascends and descends at a gentle 10-15km/h, spending several hours in between floating at apogee, the highest point in the balloon’s flight. Passengers will take in the sights through the capsule’s panoramic windows from the comfort of a well-appointed interior, without experiencing weightlessness. And while fewer than 150 space tourists have been fired up in a rocket so far, Mira plans to operate some 400 balloon flights, carrying about 3,000 passengers, from locations all around the world each year. He believes the results could even be transformational. “People talk about the ‘overview effect’ – how going to space is said to profoundly change the way you think about the Earth and our place on it. And Frank White [the philosopher who coined the term in the 1980s] has told us he’s convinced that giving that to so many more people will have a real impact on society,” Mira enthuses. “I’m certainly very eager to find out for myself.” That may be reassuring to anyone thinking that travelling to the edge of space under a balloon sounds dangerous. But not only are these start-ups designing their systems with fail-safes at every level, including backup parachutes – indeed, some space balloons deploy steerable parachutes as part of their landing procedure – they also point out that, contrary to public perception, stratospheric balloons are a tried-and-tested technology. Stratospheric balloons have, of course, long been used both to monitor the weather and to spy. The first communications satellites were actually balloons, or “satelloons”, as they were known: Nasa’s Echo 1 and 2, launched in the early 1960s, helped carry some of the first voice and television transmissions via space. Even manned stratospheric balloon flight isn’t at all new. It was in a capsule slung under a balloon that the Swiss physicist and inventor Auguste Piccard – who would lend his name to Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame – became the first person to travel into the stratosphere in 1931, together with his assistant, Paul Kipfer. The development of the technology has continued ever since. Traditionally balloons have been filled with helium, but national space agencies and some operators are now revisiting the use of hydrogen – a flammable but more buoyant and abundant gas. Still, several space balloon companies prefer the inert, though scarcer and more expensive gas for passenger flights. Last year Nasa trialled a massive, super-pressure balloon on a 17-day, high-altitude research flight. And engineers are now revisiting even older concepts, such as the “rockoon” – an idea dating to the 1940s that saves huge amounts of fuel by using a stratospheric balloon to launch a rocket from the higher, much thinner atmosphere, and that was trialled by the US military throughout the 50s. “The fact is that lots of rockets still have accidents. But there’s very little risk in balloon technology, not least because it’s two centuries old and actually a very simple process,” says Farret d’Astiès, who has made countless hydrogen balloon flights over his career. “Of course safety is still a big focus, which is why the technology is being made to the same robust standards expected by the international agencies that monitor the safety of airliners. People have heard of, say, weather balloons, but don’t really understand what stratospheric balloons are capable of or how safe they are.” Arguably, these voyages might have started decades ago. So why now? One key driver is a leap in computer power enabling Halo, for example, to develop an algorithm drawing on decades of balloon flight data to predict a craft’s windblown flight path and landing point to, the company says, more than 95 per cent accuracy. Advances in pressurisation technology have also played a role, enabling capsules to feature the kind of expansive windows now familiar from the latest generation of commercial airliners. But, according to Ryan Hartman, CEO of World View – an operator with a track record of providing stratospheric balloon services to industry and science, and whose founding team was instrumental in Alan Eustace’s 2014 record-breaking stratospheric skydive from 41,419 metres – the rise of private enterprise in the space travel business has also changed the regulatory environment. Space ballooning might even be seen as a beneficiary of the rise of ecotourism, he adds: not only can balloons be recycled, but they don’t – like rockets – emit hundreds or even thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide per launch. Ballooning, even to the edge of space – where the lack of buoyancy and air pressure prevent a balloon from going any further – is less roller coaster and more a serene, contemplative affair, ideal for taking in what will no doubt be an awe-inspiring experience. Maybe that’s why these start-ups have, they say, already received requests from corporations and wealthy individuals keen to commission their own capsules, and from prospective wedding parties who perhaps see the infinite nothingness of space as a suitable metaphor by which to tie the knot. Zephalto’s Farret d’Astiès believes we are witnessing the birth of an entirely new travel sector, and that the future will bring the technology to enable long-stay stratospheric balloon cruises. The only way, as they say, is up.

How stratospheric balloon flights could be about to redefine space tourism

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic brought rocket-powered space tourism – these start-ups are promising a more serene ride

SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic brought rocket-powered space tourism – these start-ups are promising a more serene ride