Startup Aims To Provide Balloon Rides to Near-space

摘要

If the latest venture from Paragon Space Development Corp. succeeds, people will not have to climb aboard a rocketship to be a space tourist anymore. For $75,000, the new venture -World View Enterprises - will loft passengers 30 kilometers up into Earth's atmosphere using a high-altitude balloon. While the ride will not earn passengers their astronaut wings - outer space is generally considered to begin at an altitude of 100 kilometers - it will afford spectacular views of the blackness of space and the curvature of our planet, World View officials said.