zero2infinity
aviation expert dimitris bountolos was brought on as the coo of zero2infinity in september. image credit: zero2infinity
an artist' s rendering of the bloon scientific outpost. image credit: zero2infinity
as the spanish team zero2infinity shows, space tourism is more than just rocket science .
new york (zero2infinity pr) — zero2infinity is now one step closer to manned flight: an agreement was just signed with final frontier design to buy a pressurized space suits .
unrolling zero2infinity’s polyethylene balloon, to be filled with helium. early balloons used explosive hydrogen .
her' zero2infinity' group recently launched an indiegogo campaign to raise funds for the project .
lluc palerm is the winner of sgac’s $ pace is business competition (credits: zero2infinity) .
zero2infinity, the company behind inbloon has already conducted successful near - space flights for scientific research missions .
bloostar, zero2infinity' s dedicated small satellite launcher to put satellites in low earth orbit on demand .
barcelona, spain (zero2infinity pr) — after many years of friendship, an agreement was formalized between michael lópez - alegría and zero2infinity. the former nasa astronaut will advise the company in both technical and business matters .
an interesting concept for high - altitude flight from a barcelona company called zero2infinity. the website ncludes the following description :
barcelona, 5 october 2012 (zero2infinity pr) — zero2infinity, purveyor of near - space tourism, was announced today as a yearling winner of the 2012 bully award honouring europe’s leading startup companies as presented by white bull summits, champions of european innovation .
zero2infinity is one of two organizations hoping to use pressurized capsules suspended beneath helium balloons as a way to take tourists into near space .
zero2infinity is one of a number of companies eyeing new methods of low - cost, high - altitude flights to the edge of space .
zero2infinity announced on october 15, their plans to begin micro - satellite launches to low - earth orbit by 2017. (credit: oiioo )
the zero2infinity bloostar launch vehicle. three stages will use a set of liquid fuel engines clustered as concentric toroids. (photo credit: 0ii00 )
hundreds of people have already booked a ticket for virgin galactic’s spaceship two. how many people do you think will take a tour with zero2infinity ?
barcelona, spain (zero2infinity pr) — the high - altitude balloon company zero2infinity, based in barcelona, has received its first space suit, designed by american company final frontier design. this brings the company one step closer to crewed test flights, which should start later this year .
barcelona, spain (zero2infinity pr) — on friday, 6 september 2013, zero2infinity performed a test flight of microbloon 3. 0 from the airport of cordoba, spain. microbloon 3. 0 is an inflatable pod manufactured by thin red line aerospace and ascended smoothly up to 27km .
león, spain, november 12, 2012 (zero2infinity pr) — barcelona - based company zero2infinity has successfully launched its newest prototype, the microbloon 2. 0, to the edge of space at almost 32km in altitude, that is, above 99% of the mass of the atmosphere .
q & a session between @ spacex cto and @ zero2infinity founders at @ starburstinnov selection committee at @ assembleenat. # talkingaboutrockets # newspace # space urltoken
the recently tested capsule carried a humanoid robot up to 32 kilometers and the zero2infinity team will be analyzing the data from the flight for the coming months .
zero2infinity’s test flight, on november 12, 2012, reached an altitude of 104, 000 feet. from liftoff to touchdown, the test lasted four hours .
zero2infinity is one of two organizations hoping to use pressurized capsules suspended beneath helium balloons as a way to take tourists into near space. (courtesy, cnn )
barcelona, spain (zero2infinity pr) — the spanish company zero2infinity, based in barcelona, known for its extensive near - space ballooning experience, announced it’s been working to expand its capabilities to include a nanosatellite launch vehicle, named bloostar, to offer reliable, dedicated, launch on demand for 21st century small satellites .
despite the intimate connection between world view and zero2infinity at the start, the competing capsules have differences in their designs. in addition to the two pilots, world view’s seats six passengers; zero2infinity’s seats four. world view’s capsule resembles a truncated airplane fuselage, a tried - and - true approach to high altitudes; zero2infinity’s is shaped like a doughnut, which allows the capsule to be reinforced in the middle so outward - facing passengers can gaze out the wraparound windows without turning their heads .
zero2infinity, the company behind the high - flying scientific bloon, has closed its next round of investments, and is restructuring slightly to make way for its newest project, bloostar .
the team at zero2infinity is moving forward with plans to offer extreme - altitude balloon rides, and recently sent a scale model soaring to an altitude of more than 104, 000 feet .
josé mariano lópez urdiales, founder and ceo of the spanish startup zero2infinity, gave a presentation on thursday about the company’s bloostar balloon - launched smallsat rocket during the international astronautical conference in jerusalem .
barcelona - based zero2infinity aims to harness the same technology used in helium weather balloons to float its first clients to the edge of space within two years, according to ceo jose mariano lopez - urdiales .
zero2infinity is not talking to new investors at the moment, having already collected investments as well as gaining revenues from its ballooning business. lopez - urdiales said the company priced bloostar to be similar to the cost of a secondary payload, with customers instead getting to be the primary mission. if the market proves competitive, he said pricing could go down. zero2infinity also offers discounts for batches of launches .
zero2infinity pr — mr. artemy lebedev lives in moscow and is the founder of design company art. lebedev studio. he is one of the most successful web designers in russia and a prominent blogger .
the bloostar team: robert falco, mark rovi, dali gala, dani rc, josé mariano lópez urdiales, jose luis garcia bravo, iris silverio pons, dimitris bountolos and david jiménez. image credit: zero2infinity
unlike the test capsule, zero2infinity’s real one will have windows all around, and keeping them fog - free may be a challenge. the four passengers and two crew will have a 360 - degree view of earth .
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once pressurized space suits are delivered, zero2infinity will evaluate them in some tests for the use in the first manned test flight in 2013. we hope that this is the beginning of a long and fruitful collaboration with final frontier design .
the bloostar launch phases. zero2infinity intends to de - orbit the final stage to minimize their contribution to the growing debris field in low - earth orbit. their plans are to launch from a ship at sea. (photo credit: 0ii00 )
“we really loved to be at tnw conference and to let people know about us”, shares marta lebrón gaset, communications and social networks manager at zero2infinity. space, a start - up that is on a mission to elevate our planetary consciousness by providing elevating experiences .
back in 2012, when zero2infinity was the only outfit working on stratospheric tourism, the company talked to paragon about providing the life support system for its capsule. paragon surprised many by terminating the relationship, and a few months later began describing a product similar to zero2infinity’s: world view. annelie schoenmaker, who handles external relations for zero2infinity, claims there’s no bad blood about this—the company easily found another supplier—plus, the presence of competitors can be encouraging to investors. “it’s reassuring, ” she says; “it means that people see that this is a real business, that this is something that really is a good idea. it would be worrying if nobody was copying you. ” she should be happy then that a chinese company recently announced that it will begin testing a capsule for stratotourism, though the announcement was light on details .
zero2infinity has spent their last six years since their formation focusing on their uncrewed scientific ballooning endeavors and gathering clients for their flight campaigns. their helium project, a crewed version of their commercial near - space balloon program, was recently awarded a phase 1 grant by the european commission .
we' re currently tracking 11 products being used at zero2infinity. space, including products for analytics and business intelligence, software development, languages and frameworks, hosting, servers, networks and storage, security, email hosting and tools, content management system (cms), and productivity .
zero2infinity has been operating high - altitude balloons since 2009. flying technical, scientific and commercial payloads to over 30km altitude is its current operational activity. using balloons as a first - stage for a nanosatellite launcher is the logical and necessary next step to address this booming and underserved market .
ballooning is already tried and tested technology — “it’s the origin of space travel, ” explains annelie schoenmaker, external relations and legal officer for zero2infinity, a spanish company that plans to launch passengers to near space using balloons known as “bloons” for €110, 000 ($ 124, 000) a time .
lopez - urdiales said zero2infinity had the notion of transferring this capability to launch small satellites from earth a while ago, but at the time there was not a sufficient market to support such a launch system. now, because of the significant uptick in small satellite activity, the company is pursuing bloostar .
world view and zero2infinity hope to counter unwanted motion with the parafoil design and perhaps extra systems, but that could get prohibitively expensive. “there are definitely some things that are doable, ” says nelson, “but how is that going to impact the bottom line? what’s that going to add to the cost? ”
clearly, the sky is not the limit for balloon launcher zero2infinity. based in barcelona, spain, the company announced this week their plans to launch payloads to orbit using a balloon launch system. the rockoon is a portmanteau, as lewis carroll would have said: the blend of the words rocket and balloon .
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according to zero2infinity, this method may seem counterintuitive, but it means less drag, less fuel needed, and since the engines fire in a near - vacuum, there’s a much higher specific impulse because of higher engine efficiency. in all, the company says that costs are comparable to a secondary or
piggyback
payload launch .
bloostar has generated a healthy amount of interest from companies in the small satellite community. jose mariano lopez - urdiales, founder and ceo of zero2infinity, told via satellite the project already has letters of intent worth roughly $ 268. 4 million (240 million euros), which constitutes enough demand to move forward with developing the system .
this test was a first for the aerospace industry, as zero2infinity is currently the only company using stratospheric balloons as a first - stage vehicle. and already, the company states that it has garnered its fair share of interest from leading satellite developers, claiming that they have “gathered upwards of 250 million euros in letters of intent for future launches. ”
if all goes to plan, after completing the stratospheric flight, he is already thinking about the development of high - altitude commercial flights with bigger aircraft to compete with balloon firms like zero2infinity and worldview. another idea is to create stratospheric solar drones to replace or support satellites. such drones are currently being developed by facebook and google, among others .
this test was a first for the aerospace industry, as zero2infinity is currently the only company using stratospheric balloons as a first - stage vehicle. and already, the company states that it has garnered its fair share of interest from leading satellite developers, claiming that they have
gathered upwards of 250 million euros in letters of intent for future launches .
one of the main objectives of zero2infinity’s project “bloon”, a manned high - altitude balloon, is to give the overview effect to the people flying it. during a google hangout organized by zero2infinity on march 5th, 2012, about this emotional shift in perspective that is known as the “overview effect, ” lopez - alegria said: “the earth is covered by the atmosphere, which is analogous to the skin of an apple, that is pretty thin. even in a balloon flight, you’d be outside this boundary just about; you’d be able to perceive what that’s like, and that just in itself, with the curvature and the blackness of the sky, will give a very strong sense of the bigger picture” .
meanwhile, the spanish company zero2infinity is making similar plans for near - space balloon flights, and hopes to begin piloted tests of its “bloon” next year. the barcelona - based firm started developing tourism plans in 2009, before world view got into the game, and already offers commercial and scientific balloon flights to the stratosphere, for payloads weighing up to a ton .
founded in 2009, the private aerospace company zero2infinity – which is headquartered in barcelona, spain – was created with the vision of delivering orbital payloads and providing space tourism on a budget. but unlike your conventional aerospace companies – i. e. spacex, blue origin, orbital atk, etc – their plan is to do it all using high - altitude stratospheric balloons .
reaching space in a balloon may sound like something out of a children’s book, but spain’s zero2infinity company doesn' t think so. the barcelona - based company specializes in near - space balloon flights for scientific and engineering clients, and is working on a nanosatellite launch vehicle called bloostar, which uses a high - altitude balloon as a first stage and rockets for reaching orbit .
of course it’s all moot without paying passengers. maccallum says that many of the current ticketholders are business people or scientists. zero2infinity’s schoenmaker sees the time aloft as an opportunity for reflection. “you realize that the earth is very fragile; it’s really a planet. and that’s our place in the universe, ” she says. “it changes your perspective. ” or so she imagines .
on march 1st, the zero2infinity team passed a major milestone, deploying a prototype “rockoon” craft from the national institute of aerospace technology ‘s (inta) facility in el arenosillo, spain. known as bloostar, this two - stage craft (which consists of a balloon and a rocket) is one of the latest technologies seeking to drastically reduce the costs of launching people and payloads into space .
zero2infinity is developing a liquid fuel engine that they emphasize is environmentally friendly. the first stage firing of bloostar will last 160 seconds, reach 250 km of altitude and an inertial speed of 3. 7 km / s. this is about half the velocity necessary for reach a stable low earth orbit. the second stage will fire for 230 seconds and achieve an altitude of 530 km with velocity of 5. 4 km / s. the 3rd and final stage motor will fire at least twice with a coast period to achieve the final orbit. zero2infinity states that their bloostar system will be capable of placing a 75kg (165 lbs) payload into a 600 km (372 mi) sun - synchronous orbit. in contrast, the international space station orbits at 420 km (260 mi) altitude .
launching a satellite is a very expensive proposition when done the traditional way by hitching a ride aboard a commercial rocket. there are several firms out there that are working to make putting satellites into orbit cheaper and one of them is the barcelona based zero2infinity company. zero2infiity is known for near - space ballooning and has announced that it has been working on a launch vehicle capable of putting nanosatellites into orbit .
on november 12 the start up company zero2infinity successfully tested a balloon that should be able to carry passengers to an altitude of 36 kilometers by 2014. during these balloon flights the space tourists could experience the near space environment with a breathtaking view of the earth; furthermore, they could feel weightless like an astronaut. the balloon testing took place at an air force base near virgen del camino in spain .
zero2infinity states that it' s already begun testing with a balloon flight in september of last year of an inflatable flexible pressurized vehicle to an altitude of 27 km (16. 7 mi), which will form the basis of the launcher fuel tanks. in addition, the company test - fired a privately developed and funded liquid - hydrocarbon / oxygen rocket engine, which it says is a first for spain
on march 1st, the zero2infinity team passed a major milestone, deploying a prototype
rockoon
craft from the national institute of aerospace technology' s (inta) facility in el arenosillo, spain. known as bloostar, this two - stage craft (which consists of a balloon and a rocket) is one of the latest technologies seeking to drastically reduce the costs of launching people and payloads into space .
the rockoon concept is not unlike what scaled composites undertakes with a plane and rocket. their whiteknight planes lift the spaceships to 50, 000 feet for takeoff whereas the zero2infinity balloon will loft bloostar to 65, 000 feet or higher. the increased altitude of the balloon launch reduces the atmospheric density to half of what it is at 50, 000 feet and altogether about 8% of the density at sea level .
zero2infinity’s primary business currently involves high - altitude ballooning for a variety of customers. lopez - urdiales said the company has been launching high - altitude balloon payloads for the past six years, and that many aspects of that business — trajectory modeling software, separation systems, termination systems, pressurized payloads and telemetry — share a fair amount of commonality with bloostar. the company is hard at work on the rocket today .
by the end of the year, zero2infinity is aiming to launch a balloon from the sea as well as to launch a rocket from a balloon. bloostar is planning missions from the canary islands, a spanish archipelago off the coast of morocco, using either a boat or a floating barge. lopez - urdiales said the company has launched big balloons from the ground using cranes, and has people on its team that have launched from sea, but as a company it has not attempted the combination. from the canary islands, lopez - urdiales said bloostar can reach almost any orbit and the wind conditions are typically calm and predictable. also, because zero2infinity is located in spain, the company can relocate the boat or barge to coastal areas with high demand, such as the u. s. or china, he said .
currently, the firm routinely takes scientific and commercial payloads to altitudes of over 30km via balloons. plans for launching small satellites will use these high altitude balloons as the first stage for a nanosatellite launcher. zero2infinity says that the tech to launch nanosatellites without having to hitch a ride with other missions doesn’t yet exist, but it has been working on its so - called orbital rockoon as a solution to this issue .
how is zero2infinity planning to use stratospheric balloons for “space” tourism? there are many companies developing space tourism capabilities with rockets but we are proposing a totally different approach. since what people want to experience is the view from space, we want to use high - altitude balloons. four passengers and two pilots will smoothly ascend to around 36km. then they will experience a cruise of between one and two hours for descending with a guided parafoil .
zero2infinity just entered into an agreement with final frontier design and became one of the first in line to buy a pressurized space suits. the aim of ted southern and nikolay moiseev, the associates behind ffd, is to develop the next generation of space suits for the new commercial space industry. they have already made pressurized astronaut gloves and two complete suit prototypes and are now seking nasa flight certification; they will start delivering suits in january 2013 .
the logic behind bloostar is that once the balloon carrying the payload reaches the stratosphere, it will have cleared more than 99 percent of the atmosphere, at which point a streamlined rocket can carry payloads the rest of the way to space. lopez - urdiales said the bloostar rocket component would have an order of magnitude fewer parts than something launched from sea level. by shedding this complexity, zero2infinity hopes to offer a unique and competitive dedicated smallsat launch service .
the zero2infinity ‘ bloostar ‘ launches nanosatellites from the stratosphere, by enhancing high - altitude balloons with rockets. the spanish company is known for its extensive near - space ballooning experience – such as the bloon – and will offer this new dispatch - on - demand technology by an estimated year of 2017. the helium and batteries powered airship is used for the first stage, where after the rocket is ignited when it is above 99% of the atmosphere .
at zero2infinity life has been full of small successes every day. one success that we remember fondly is when we launched our first rocket from the edge of space in march 2017. the engineering team traveled to the south of spain, and from a vessel, they launched the balloon with the bloostar prototype that was ignited at 25 km of altitude. we’re happy to share that it was a successful mission and we accomplished everything that we set out to achieve with that launch .
bloostar’s simplicity would enable cheaper small satellite launches and its smaller size means less pollution to the atmosphere as well. the first stage of the launch vehicle uses helium and batteries with the launch vehicle igniting when it is past 99% of the atmosphere, resulting in less propellant required for launch. it’s unclear when the system will be ready for its first satellite launch; the company is aiming for sometime in 2017. zero2infinity has $ 200 million in pre - sales from nanosatellite firms .
balloons are also cheaper to operate than rockets, and they require next to no infrastructure to launch and retrieve—zero2infinity is even considering bringing the balloon and capsule to clients anywhere in the world, or at least the closest spot with suitably calm winds. rockets are loud, while inside the balloon capsule the loudest sound will likely be conversation. and unlike emission - less balloons, rockets pollute; a recent study showed that a growing commercial space industry could have significant impacts on the global climate .
the ‘bloostar’ booster does not require to impel through the denser parts of the atmosphere and turns on when in conditions where there is lower drag and smaller gravity losses. this translates to the amount of propellant needed being much lower than for a ground or even an airborne set off. these advantages ensure the lowest unit cost per cast - off and lessens satellite - launching pollution effects. zero2infinity have completed preliminary tests in september 2013 and 2014, and continue to introduce modifications for future experiments .
world view’s price matches xcor’s: $ 75, 000. zero2infinity’s ticketholders, paying €110, 000 (about $ 130, 000) each, will get a bit more for their money. passengers will arrive in córdoba two days before their flights so that they have enough time to rest before their ascent. while they’re getting over their jetlag, passengers will hear talks by visiting scientists and learn more about their flight, all in a comfortable and, of course, high - end atmosphere .
zero2infinity, founded by mit - educated engineer josé mariano lópez - urdiales, hopes to provide a cheaper, more relaxing way for tourists and scientists to experience “near - space” altitudes by ascending to nearly 120, 000 feet (36 kilometers) in a pod suspended beneath at 400 - foot - diameter balloon. that is well short of the 100 km or so promised by virgin galactic and others developing suborbital spacecraft, but lópez - urdiales argues it will provide a similar view for far less money .
regulatory red tape is another big unknown. world view’s vehicle has been classified by the federal aviation administration as a crewed spacecraft, so it will have to adhere to all the safety requirements that go with that designation. the faa has been known to lag behind the expansion of new technologies, so it remains to be seen how easily world view can get over the “space qualification” hurdle. europe doesn’t yet have any relevant regulations, so zero2infinity is working with the spanish and european governments to develop them .
both world view and zero2infinity are planning a further safeguard against early balloon failure: open the capsule’s parachute early, perhaps even before liftoff. with the parachute already deployed, a failure even at a few hundred feet would result in the same drifting landing as if the capsule were descending from on high. and the passengers won’t feel a jolt when the capsule detaches from the balloon. still, both companies plan to pack several backup chutes (those, should they be needed, would come with the customary jolt) .
during the annual space generation congress held in beijing from the 19th to 21st of september by the space generation advisory council (sgac), space safety magazine met lluc palerm, a young engineer and winner of the “ $ pace is business” competition where he presented an interesting paper on how microsatellites and the advent of microlaunchers could disrupt the satellite industry. palerm currently works at zero2infinity, a spanish start - up that is trying challenge virgin galactic and space expedition corporation with an innovative idea on “space” tourism using stratospheric balloons .
bloostar is blazing new ground in spain. the ground tests of their liquid fuel rocket engine are the first of its kinds in the country. zero2infinity began launching balloons in 2009. the founder and ceo, jose mariano lopez - urdiales is an aeronautical engineer educated in spain with r & d experience involving esa, mit and boeing. he has speerheaded organizations and activities in his native spain. in 2002 he presented to the world space congress in houston, the paper “the role of balloons in the future development of space tourism” .
zero2infinity’s balloon flights will launch from near cordoba, spain, and the six people onboard (two pilots and four passengers) should be able to see the entire iberian peninsula from their cruising altitude (see the video above for a simulation of the flight). eventually, the company envisions launching from other european sites, depending, in part, on legal questions. right now, schoenmaker says, “there is no [ europe - wide ] regulation for high - altitude ballooning, ” and rules for licensing have to be worked out .
another problem: needing to fly as often as twice a week to make the business viable. the number of balloons needed for all those flights could be a big hurdle for the companies; balloons for stratospheric flights aren’t reusable, and they’re not easy to come by. according to maccallum, if world view and zero2infinity each fly 50 times in their first year, as planned, they’ll need double the current worldwide production of suitable balloons. he says world view is developing its own balloon manufacturing plant and working out whether reusable balloons are feasible .
“we have been working on the idea for bloostar for years. now the technology on both the satellite and launch vehicle sides is mature enough to make it happen. many new successful companies have business plans based on nanosatellites, like skybox imaging, but the dedicated launcher that they would need, doesn’t exist yet. the launch industry needs to be transformed and adapt to the real necessity of providing small payloads with the flexibility to pick their own orbit and their launch date, ” said josé mariano lópez - urdiales, ceo and founder of zero2infinity .
michael lópez - alegría is a spanish - american astronaut who flew to space four times and performed ten spacewalks. after retiring from nasa in 2012, he became president of the commercial spaceflight federation in washington, dc. his expertise in both american and russian space programs will be an important asset in establishing human space travel in europe. lópez - alegría will put his years of experience and extensive knowledge in the field of commercial spaceflight to the service of zero2infinity, supporting its objectives and dreams of sustainable, near - space access for scientists, passengers and payloads .
two companies are doing their best to get you there. tucson, arizona - based world view experience includes the founders of paragon, a company that builds environmental control systems for spacecraft—and the pressure suit worn by google executive alan eustace last year when he set the world altitude record for skydiving: 135, 890 feet. spanish company zero2infinity was founded by josé mariano lópez - urdiales, an aeronautical engineer formerly with boeing’s advanced phantom works division, the european space research and technology center, and other distinguished design bureaus. lópez - urdiales began investigating balloon stratotourism years before the 2004
[ via satellite 03 - 23 - 2016 ] zero2infinity, a high altitude balloon company based in spain, is making progress on the development of a launch vehicle that uses the combination of a balloon and a rocket to deliver small satellites to low earth orbit (leo). called bloostar, the vehicle’s baseline design aims at carrying 75 - kilogram payloads to a 600 - kilometer sun - synchronous orbit (sso) for a price tag of about $ 4. 5 million (4 million euros). the vehicle’s first orbital mission is currently slated for the second half of 2018, preceded by numerous suborbital development launches .
nanosatellites today need to fly as secondary payloads, and hitchhike their way into orbit ,
says josé mariano lópez - urdiales, ceo and founder of zero2infinity .
we have been working on the idea for bloostar for years. now the technology on both the satellite and launch vehicle sides is mature enough to make it happen. many new successful companies have business plans based on nanosatellites, like skybox imaging, but the dedicated launcher that they would need, doesn’t exist yet. the launch industry needs to be transformed and adapt to the real necessity of providing small payloads with the flexibility to pick their own orbit and their launch date .
j osé mariano lópez - urdiales, ceo and founder of zero2infinity says: ‘nanosatellites today need to fly as secondary payloads, and hitchhike their way into orbit. we have been working on the idea for bloostar for years. now the technology on both the satellite and launch vehicle sides is mature enough to make it happen. many new successful companies have business plans based on nanosatellites, like skybox imaging, but the dedicated launcher that they would need, doesn’t exist yet. the launch industry needs to be transformed and adapt to the real necessity of providing small payloads with the flexibility to pick their own orbit and their launch date. we believe bloostar, as the first orbital rockoon, is the solution for clean, cost – effective and sustainable space access. ’
on a typical flight, after detaching from the balloon, both world view’s and zero2infinity’s capsules will descend under a kind of steerable parachute called a parafoil, which, when inflated, acts like a wing. world view tested its parafoil in february in a balloon drop from over 100, 000 feet, something that had never been done. there were some differences in how it worked in thinner air, says maccallum, but “fundamentally, it flew. ” he has so much confidence in the controllability of a piloted descent that world view plans to put wheels on its capsule so that it can be landed at a downwind airport, rather than retrieved from wherever it happens to end up. world view’s design imperative for all stages of the flight, according to maccallum, is simple: “you won’t spill your drink. ”
the time factor is part of what drew luxury tourism executive philippe bourgignon to world view, but he’ll be bringing his wife, their two grown children, and his son - in - law. for him the balloon trip is spiritual, or perhaps sentimental: pressed for time by his job, bourgignon agreed to take several trips a year with his family to share incredible experiences together. his interest has nothing to do with thrill - seeking. “i would never do the rocket ride, ” he says. that’s a good sign that world view and zero2infinity are reading the market right. but how many philippe bourgignons are out there, and what is their attention span? bourgignon admits he also wants to be one of the first to experience it—“it’s important to do it before it becomes kind of a normal thing. ”
in the zero2infinity flight, the balloon would take several hours to reach an adequate altitude. from that altitude, reached after several hours of flight, the passengers could see the curvature of our planet and the sun rise against the blackness of space. on the way back down to the ground, the procedure would be to cut off the cable between the balloon and the passenger capsule. in this moment the people on board could experience weightlessness for 40 to 60 seconds during free fall, until the parachute opens. the capsule that was tested could carry two people, in a laying down position. for convenience the future version of the balloons, called “bloons” by the company, would have a bagel - shaped capsule to provide standing place for 6 people. “that’s probably the biggest benefit private spaceflight will offer to civilians and members of the public, ” lopez - urdiales said. “the overview effect is personal experience, but then you share it. i think it goes a much longer way than bragging rights. ” but for now lópez - urdiales and his team are building another test balloon and capsule which could carry two people in an upright position .
even so, the survey questions asked respondents only about orbital and suborbital options; at the time there was no balloon option. significantly more people said they’d be willing to shell out serious cash for a flight if, at some point in the future, they were able to take a companion, or if the fitness requirements were lowered, or if the company could largely eliminate the risk of being blown up. all of which are the balloon company’s biggest selling points over competitors virgin galactic and xcor, which are offering rocket - powered rides into suborbital space for $ 200, 000 and $ 75, 000 respectively. on a balloon ride to the stratosphere, there’s no fuel to explode and no reentry to botch. rocket rides require passengers to be strapped into seats most of the time, while balloon passengers will be permitted to get up and move around. rocket - riders will spend only about five minutes at altitude before they have to strap back in for the rapid descent (“just about the time you get your wits about you and the person next to you stops throwing up, it’s time to come home, ” says world view’s maccallum), while balloons allow about two hours. balloons are slow, ascending at about 11 mph and descending not much faster. and unlike orbital and suborbital flights, passengers won’t need to undergo training or pass a fitness test. neither world view nor zero2infinity places restrictions on who can fly: the elderly and children are welcome. if you can fly on a commercial airliner, they say, you’re good to go, and you might find the balloon ride even gentler .
companies on both sides of the atlantic are building capsules to carry you into the stratosphere .
the six passengers arrive at the launch pad a few hours before dawn. they watch as the giant balloon, its material thin as a hair’s breadth, is filled with helium until it towers over their little capsule. the pilot and copilot repeat the safety procedures: buckle your safety belt during launch and landing, no smoking in the lavatory. the passengers strap in, the hatch is sealed, and the capsule and balloon are released. two hours later, they’re in what looks to most people like outer space .
by the time it stops rising, the balloon has expanded to about 40 million cubic feet, the size of a football stadium. it floats in the top of the sensible atmosphere like an ice cube in a glass of water; it drifts slightly, but to the passengers, it feels virtually stationary. there’s no engine roar, no humming machinery; the capsule is as quiet as a library. a gourmet breakfast is served, perhaps with mimosas from the bar. a few passengers slip on headphones to enjoy their own soundtracks for the sunrise. even after the sun emerges from behind the blue - rimmed curve of earth, at 100, 000 feet, stars are visible in the black sky .
after a couple of hours of floating, it’s time to come home. the pilot flips a switch and the capsule detaches from the balloon, floating leisurely back to earth under a parachute .
you can make a reservation today for a trip just like this. and although it won’t happen this year, or even next, soon you can become a member of a very elite group: those who have traveled to the top of the stratosphere .
airliners can’t get you there, but one day soon a world view capsule (concept) might .
for around $ 130, 000, this view can be yours for a few hours. in 2012, zero2inifinity tested a scale model of its bloon capsule in preparation for 2017 full - scale flights .
world view’s conceptual capsule on the way down. the maneuverable parafoil above will allow the crew to pick where downwind to land, and the full - scale version will have wheels, unlike ordinary gondolas .
x prize - winning flight of spaceshipone. neither company can offer a trip to space—in the united states you’re not considered an astronaut until you’ve cleared an altitude of 50 miles, well above the balloon trip’s ceiling—but they’re betting that near - space can offer a similar experience. for the past two years both companies have been testing and refining their concepts, using unmanned balloons to take up small scientific payloads, mostly commercial satellite elements for testing in near - space. both are taking modest deposits on the ticket price, with the assurance that in or around 2017, ticketholders will be given a time window for their trip to the stratosphere .
people have been traveling into the stratosphere by balloon since 1931, when auguste piccard and paul kipfer rode in a pressurized gondola (piccard’s invention) to 51, 775 feet. a series of navy and air force programs in the 1950s and 1960s used pressure vessels or pressure suits to get balloonists higher, some to above 100, 000 feet. skydiver nicholas piantanida set an unofficial record—123, 500 feet—in 1966, but a later attempt went awry when his helmet depressurized. his team brought the gondola down, but piantanida suffered brain damage from lack of oxygen. he died four months later .
high - altitude ballooning had claimed other lives over the years, and the elaborate life support systems created for both recent successes—felix baumgartner’s well - publicized leap from 127, 852 feet and eustace’s later, higher one—make clear that ascents to the stratosphere require careful planning and protection. aerospace engineers have pretty much mastered the “shirt sleeves” environment for airplanes and space capsules. even in the worst - case life support scenario, the capsule can always detach and descend quickly back to breathable air, says taber maccallum, the chief technology officer at world view. “the consequences of a catastrophic failure in a balloon, ” he says, “are simply that you fly home. ” in a sudden decompression, he says, there is more than enough emergency oxygen on board. zero2inifinty’s capsule will seal off affected sections .
the absence of oxygen and lack of pressure are the gravest threats, but not the only problems. at high altitude, the temperatures are frigid. in the vacuum of space a capsule encounters no air molecules, so it loses heat relatively slowly through radiation. but when a balloon rising to very high altitudes encounters increasingly colder air (as low as - 112 degrees fahrenheit), heat is transferred from the capsule’s surface to cooler air molecules just outside, and strong wind quickly replaces the now - heated air molecules with cold ones. properly insulating the capsule is one of the trickier engineering challenges ahead, as is balancing passenger comfort against avoiding problems like windows fogging up .
though it may seem counterintuitive, the least safe portion of a stratospheric balloon flight is right after launch, when the balloon is still close to the ground. if anything goes wrong, there isn’t much time for the pilot to open a parachute and steer the capsule to a safe landing. one way to mitigate the risk of trouble early in the flight is to take care that the ultra - thin polyethylene balloon doesn’t tear, so world view will use a crane to stand the balloon up before inflating it, bypassing the traditional processes of unrolling the balloon as it inflates or laying it out on the tarmac, both of which are more likely to lead to a tear .
testing thus far, including a flight hauling 130 pounds for nasa, shows a fairly benign descent. but the full - scale capsule and passengers will weigh 8, 000 pounds in all. in theory, the parafoil simply needs to be proportionally larger as payload weight increases, and the company hopes to be flight testing with 8, 000 - pound dummy capsules by the end of this year. but maccallum admits that, because parafoils are very rarely designed and used at this scale, testing could hit a wall. a giant parafoil could be harder to keep inflated than a smaller one, and the larger the backup chutes have to be, the more energy it will take to deploy them .
matthew nelson, an engineer at iowa state university and head of the stratospheric ballooning association, points out that coming down from the stratosphere isn’t an inherently gentle experience—payloads tend to tumble or spin as they fall through the thin air in the upper atmosphere, where the descent is hard to control. “i don’t know how comfortable that would be for the average person, ” nelson says. “you’re still going to land safely, but it might be a bit of a roller - coaster on the way down, at least for the first couple of minutes. ”
maccallum describes the flight as potentially life - changing, which is all the more reason to make sure that passengers have a chance to fully experience it however they choose (he relishes the thought of “the ultimate facebook update”). world view customers will spend up to two hours earth - gazing—and according to maccallum, that’s the real beauty of the balloon—it will give the chance to really look around and appreciate the view .
a 2002 survey by consulting firm futron showed that seeing earth from space was a big reason for wanting to fly to space, but that potential space tourists were most strongly motivated by the possibility of being a pioneer. that could be bad news for the customer flow .
clint wallington, a professor at rochester institute of technology’s hospitality and tourism management department, has taught a course on space tourism, and points out that the number of people lining up for a stratosphere trip, however many there are at the start, could be self - limiting. “you’re going to see people who want to be ‘firsties’ as much as you see adventure people, ” he says, meaning that people might not want to do it if a thousand joe schmoes have already done it before them .
but it’s not entirely clear how such untrained and untested folks will react. “it’s just an unknown, ” says maccallum. “we’ve talked to doctors about it, flight surgeons, and the consensus is: who knows? nobody’s ever taken a person to the stratosphere who wasn’t trained. ” that’s partly why both companies plan to have two pilots on a crew; one will always be available to “deal with” passengers’ reactions, should the need arise .
nigel goode is a partner in the design firm priestman goode and head of the team designing the world view capsule’s interior. he says it’s the attention to detail that reminds passengers that they’re in a very expensive machine: “if anything, people will notice it more if it’s not quite as good” as their expectations. the trick to designing the capsule, he says, is to make the capsule not only safe, but safe - looking. “you look at an aircraft and you’re not thinking that the shell of that aircraft is only a couple of millimeters thick, ” he says. drinks and food will help. maccallum recalls the age of zeppelins, when luxury lounges were slung beneath airships like floating dining clubs. “no real spaceship should be without a bar, ” he says .
but clint wallington, the space tourism professor, doesn’t necessarily buy the balloon experience’s luxury element. storing, heating, and serving truly gourmet food might require more space, weight, and crew attention than the companies have to spare. “the posh factor, ” wallington says, “doesn’t add up to much .
”of course, some people may never feel comfortable with the risk of high - altitude flight. evan demestihas is a lifelong space enthusiast and one of world view’s early ticketholders, but his wife, who is also a space enthusiast, won’t be joining him. he is a bit of a thrill - seeker—in 2004 he took a mig flight to 80, 000 feet. it wasn’t much of a trip, though—“it was 32 minutes, wheels up to wheels down. my adrenaline was barely kicking in when we landed”—which is why he says he’s interested in the world view experience .
the idea of a rocket / balloon or
rockoon
is not new. it dates back to 1949, when the astrophysicist james a. van allen and others developed the concept as a way of sending sounding rockets to high altitudes without needing the additional fuel to punch their way through the mass of the earth' s lower atmosphere. though the technology was used until the late 1950s, the inability to steer the balloon during its ascent and the subsequent inability to predict where the sounding rocket would fall made the approach rather unattractive from a safety point of view.
zero 2 infinity is a private spanish company that operates high-altitude balloons to provide access to near space and low earth orbit using a balloon-borne pod and a balloon-borne launcher . the company was founded in 2009 by aerospace engineer jose mariano lópez-urdiales , the current ceo . it is headquartered in barberà del vallès , barcelona , spain . zero 2 infinity has been testing high-altitude balloons and launching small payloads to high altitudes for scientific institutions and commercial firms for testing elements above most of the earth 's atmosphere . their launch system has a significantly lower impact on the environment , an advantage over conventional systems . the company 's pod named bloon may also be used for tourism . as of late 2016 , its ceo had suggested that commercial flights could take place as early as 2019 . 
zero 2 infinity is a private spanish company that operates high-altitude balloons to provide access to near space and low earth orbit using a balloon-borne pod and a balloon-borne launcher. the company was founded in 2009 by aerospace engineer jose mariano lópez-urdiales, the current ceo. it is headquartered in barberà del vallès, barcelona, spain. zero 2 infinity has been testing high-altitude balloons and launching small payloads to high altitudes for scientific institutions and commercial firms for testing elements above most of the earth's atmosphere. their launch system has a significantly lower impact on the environment, an advantage over conventional systems. the company's pod named bloon may also be used for tourism. as of late 2016, its ceo had suggested that commercial flights could take place as early as 2019.
zero 2 infinity is a private spanish company that operates high-altitude balloons to provide access to near space and low earth orbit using a balloon-borne pod and a balloon-borne launcher. the company was founded in 2009 by aerospace engineer jose mariano lópez-urdiales, the current ceo. it is headquartered in barberà del vallès, barcelona, spain. zero 2 infinity has been testing high-altitude balloons and launching small payloads to high altitudes for scientific institutions and commercial firms for testing elements above most of the earth's atmosphere. their launch system has a significantly lower impact on the environment, an advantage over conventional systems. the company's pod named bloon may also be used for tourism. as of late 2016, its ceo had suggested that commercial flights could take place as early as 2019.