24.12.2023
Resembling a white whiffle ball spanning 14½ feet across, Space Perspective's prototype Spaceship Neptune is taking shape to soar on a series of test flights to the brink of space — beneath a huge hydrogen-filled balloon.
Spaceship Neptune is a pressurized circular capsule expected to take its inaugural flight during the first quarter of 2024, said Taber MacCallum, co-founder and co-CEO of Space Perspective.
Packed with scientific instruments to collect data, the balloon-lifted uncrewed spacecraft will ascend from the deck of a ship and rise 20 miles above the Atlantic Ocean.
For now, Spaceship Neptune is flanked by chrome metal scaffolding inside a hangar at Space Coast Regional Airport in Titusville. Technicians wearing white protective coveralls, blue gloves and red headlamps have finished assembling the carbon-composite sphere, which was manufactured at a Melbourne factory.
Over the next few weeks, MacCallum said crews will install 15 windows, shipped in from California. Inside the sphere, workers will add systems to handle temperature control, life support, communications, navigation and other equipment.
Once construction is complete, MacCallum said crews will load the capsule and balloon onto the company's specially outfitted 294-foot ship MS Voyager at Port Canaveral, then launch about 20 miles off the shoreline.
The space balloon's multi-hour maiden flight will be visible to spectators across Brevard County, he said.
"We'll probably do 10 to 14 test flights. Maybe 10 flights without people. Then in that process, we'll be building a human-rated vehicle — so this is meant to be a prototype," MacCallum said, standing alongside a yellow authorized-personnel-only metal barricade near Spaceship Neptune.
"And from the human-rated vehicle, we'll probably have four or five test flights with people before we're really ready to start commercial operations," he said.
MacCallum said Space Perspective will build the fourth Federal Aviation Administration-licensed commercial spacecraft for human flight, joining SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic.
Future passengers can buy $125,000 Space Perspective tickets online with a $1,000 refundable deposit. MacCallum said his space tourism startup, which was founded in 2019, has booked about 1,750 reservations thus far.
"So it's over $200 million in backlog on the books. We have a very, very excited, engaged customer base. They want us to go as fast as we can," he said.
Outfitted like a "space lounge," the company's capsules will feature reclining chairs, a refreshment bar, wi-fi, a bathroom, lighting and sound systems, and room for eight tourists and a crew member.
MacCallum said Space Perspective has about 140 employees. Nearly all are based on the Space Coast. He said Spaceship Neptune creation has been a two-year process, from design to engineering to manufacturing.
Space Perspective is also manufacturing huge polyethylene balloons — which will expand wider than a football field at high altitude — atop a pair of 600-foot-long tables inside a separate facility at the Titusville airport. Space Coast dignitaries attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony at this balloon factory in August.
MacCallum said he expects crews to complete the first balloon in a few weeks. Workers will also attach a cone-shaped structure to the bottom of Spaceship Neptune to part the Atlantic waters for a more-graceful oceanic splashdown, he said.
