Iwaya Giken Corporation in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Prefecture plans to provide helium balloon rides to the stratosphere. According to Japan Forward, the Japanese start-up hopes to use gas balloons and sealed cabins to make space travel affordable in the next decade.
The ship will transport guests 15 miles (25 kilometers) in a five-hour round journey to the stratosphere. Pricing will begin at about $180,000 (£148,000) although the company's CEO, Keisuke Iwaya, hopes that commercializing space travel will reduce the price of rides such as this.
Iwaya Giken Balloon
The vessel is made up of an airtight plastic cabin about 4.9 feet (1.5 meters) wide that is tethered to a helium balloon 144 feet (44 meters) wide, MailOnline reported. With windows on the front and rear of its drum-shaped cabin, it can seat two people and provide panoramic views of the Earth below or space above.
A voyage will begin with a balloon launch from a port in Hokkaido, Japan, where the company is currently based, followed by a two-hour ascent into the second layer of the atmosphere known as the stratosphere.
It will remain at its greatest height of 15 miles (25 km) for one hour before descending for two hours to Earth. While passengers will not travel in space, they will be higher than a jet airliner and will have an unimpeded view of it.
The Iwaya Giken vessel will be propelled by helium unlike a rocket or a hot air balloon. That means the vessel may be reused extensively. Mr. Iwaya said that passengers do not need to be billionaires to go through extensive training or have the linguistic abilities needed for flying in a spacecraft with the Iwaya Giken balloon.
Iwaya Giken Corporation has been working on its balloon for over a decade, which Mr. Iwaya said is "safe, economical and gentle for people".
Making Space Travel Affordable for Many People
JTB Corp., a Japanese travel agent, has agreed to work with the firm when it is ready for its first commercial trip, which is expected later this year. Through their partnership, they hope to make space travel affordable.
As per New York Post's report, a flight will initially cost around 24 million yen ($180,000), but Iwaya said he hopes to eventually reduce the cost to a few million yen (tens of thousands of dollars).
Iwaya stated that his goal is to make space more accessible even though Japanese space initiatives have lagged behind US enterprises, such as SpaceX and Blue Origin.
In April, SpaceX sent three rich businessmen and their astronaut escort to the International Space Station (ISS) for $55 million per person, marking the company's first private charter voyage to the orbiting lab after two years of transporting people there for NASA.
Applications for a space viewing ride went up on Tuesday and will be accepted through the end of August. The first five chosen passengers will be revealed in October, and flights will fly around a week apart, depending on the weather.
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