Design firm PriestmanGoode has unveiled CGI images of Spaceship Neptune, a high-performance balloon and capsule which will take passengers on journeys to the edge of space.
The company will be better known to readers as the designer of aircraft seating, including the recently launched business class seat on Westjet’s B787-9 aircraft.
The firm is working with US-based Space Perspective on the project, which is designed to carry passengers and research payloads to the edge of space.
According to PriestmanGoode the capsule was designed from the inside out, with the inclusion of essentials such as passenger lavatories, and a circular shape to enable 360-degree unobstructed views.
The spaceship will take up to eight passengers and a pilot on a six-hour journey to the edge of space, with a two-hour “gentle-ascent” through 99 per cent of the Earth’s atmosphere, before cruising at 100,000 feet for two hours and then descending and splashing down, where it will be retrieved by ship.
The first un-crewed test flight of the spaceship is scheduled to take place from the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in early 2021.
Commenting on the news Taber MacCallum, founder and Co-CEO of Space Perspective, said:
“Space Perspective is developing a uniquely accessible space travel experience. The team at PriestmanGoode worked with us to create that experience with Spaceship Neptune, giving it an off-world yet classic design, while meeting a wide range of human factors, engineering, manufacturing and operating requirements.”
For our recent look at the future of space tourism, see:
