Need to get away? Company plans passenger flights to edge of space from Cape Canaveral

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Your next flight could take you higher above the clouds than any commercial jet.

Space Perspective, a new company, has plans to fly passengers to the edge of space from the Kennedy Space Center.

The company is planning its first flight tests early next year. However, they’re already accepting reservations.

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The spaceship Neptune consists of a balloon that measures the length of a football stadium. Attached to it is a pressured capsule that will carry up to eight passengers on a six-hour journey to the edge of space and safely back. It will hit a cruising altitude of about 100,000 feet.

Taber MacCallum said it’s being designed to have a “very low training requirement.”

“It’s going to be more than a jet flight but not a whole lot more,” MacCallum said.

The human space flight company plans to launch the flight from the Kennedy Space Center, with the first uncrewed test flight scheduled in early 2021.

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Neptune’s commercial human spaceflight launches will be regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Spaceflight.

The cost for a seat aboard Neptune hasn’t been set yet, but it may be somewhere around $125,000.

“We are asking people to sign up now, so we can put you in line, if you will,” Space Perspective Co-CEO Jane Poynter said. “We are giving people seat allocations even though you don’t have to pay now.”

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