Space Perspective’s Neptune spacecraft prototype, which resembles a 14-foot-diameter white Whiffel ball, is going through a series of test flights, soaring to the edge of space under a giant hydrogen-filled balloon.
Taber MacCallum, co-founder and co-chief executive of Space Perspective, said the Neptune spacecraft is a pressurized circular space capsule expected to make its first flight in the first quarter of 2024.
Equipped with scientific instruments to collect data, the balloon-raised, unmanned spacecraft will rise from its deck and ascend to an altitude of 20 miles above the Atlantic Ocean.
Currently, the Neptune spacecraft is flanked by chrome metal scaffolding in a hangar at the Space Coast Regional Airport in Titusville. Technicians wearing white hazmat suits, blue gloves and red headlamps have finished assembling the carbon composite sphere, which is being manufactured at a Melbourne factory.
more:Space Perspective builds balloon in Titusville to lift tourists to edge of space
McCallum said that over the next few weeks, crews will install 15 windows shipped from California. Inside the sphere, crews will add systems to handle temperature control, life support, communications, navigation and other equipment.
McCallum said once construction is complete, crews will load the capsule and balloon onto the company’s specially equipped 294-foot-long MS Voyager ship in Port Canaveral, then about 20 miles off the coast. emission.
Spectators in Brevard County will be able to see the space balloon’s hours-long first flight, he said.
“We’ll probably do 10 to 14 test flights. Maybe 10 without crews. And then in the process, we’ll build a human-rated vehicle, so that should be a prototype,” McCallum stood said the yellow plane next to it. A metal barricade near the Neptune spacecraft for authorized personnel only.
“We’ll probably do four or five crewed test flights with humans before we’re really ready to start commercial operations,” he said.
McCallum said that SpaceX will build the fourth commercial spacecraft licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration for manned flights, following SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic.
Prospective passengers can purchase $125,000 Space Perspective tickets online with a $1,000 refundable deposit. McCallum said his space tourism startup, founded in 2019, has booked about 1,750 bookings so far.
“So there’s over $200 million of backlog on the books. We have a very, very excited, engaged customer base. They want us to move quickly,” he said.
The company’s capsule is equipped with “space lounge”-like facilities, complete with lounge chairs, refreshment bar, Wi-Fi, bathroom, lighting and sound system, and room for eight tourists and one crew member.
MacCallum said Space Perspective has about 140 employees. Almost all of the stories are set on the Space Coast. He said the creation of the Neptune spacecraft took two years from design to engineering to manufacturing.
Space Perspective is also building giant polyethylene balloons that will expand wider than a football field at altitude above a pair of 600-foot-long tables at a separate facility at Titusville Airport. Space Coast dignitaries attended the balloon factory’s ribbon-cutting ceremony in August.
McCallum said he expects crews to complete the first balloon within a few weeks. He said workers will also install a cone-shaped structure on the bottom of the Neptune spacecraft to separate the waters of the Atlantic Ocean to allow for a more graceful ocean splashdown.
For the latest launch schedule updates from Space Force Station Cape Canaveral and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/launchschedule.
Rick Nealis a space reporter for Florida Today (for more stories about him,click here.) Please contact Neale at 321-242-3638 orrneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X:@rickneal1
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