Going to space in a gigantic balloon may be in your future
Clearly, civilian space tourism for the super-rich is going to be a thing in the coming years. But Virgin Galactic and the Russian cosmonaut program aren't the only ways of getting up that high; one Spanish entrepreneur wants to send people up in a gigantic balloon.
José Mariano López-Urdiales, the founder of zero2infinity, says that he can get people up to "near space," or 22 miles up, in a 400-foot diameter balloon. Of course, this isn't nearly as high as Virgin Galactic's promised 68-mile-high flight, but it's certainly higher than most people have been. You'll be able to see the sun against the black backdrop of space, the curve of the Earth, and the fading blue atmosphere above it.
It'll be cheaper than Virgin Galactic, but not by much: $156,000 to VG's $200,000. They promise to be operating by the middle of the decade. Cut 3 zeros or so off that price, and I'm in.
