Taking tourists on day trips to look down on Earth will lead to people "connecting deeply with our planet", says Space Perspective co-founder Jane Poynter in this exclusive interview.
Tourism firm Space Perspective is promising to offer comfortable, environmentally conscious trips to the brink of the atmosphere by the end of 2024.
Co-founder, CEO and chief experience officer Poynter claims its approach "will have a huge positive impact on our society".
Poynter heads up tourism firm Space Perspective
Space Perspective is one of numerous enterprises racing to make the sci-fi notion of space tourism a reality, alongside Elon Musk's SpaceX, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic ? although the Florida-based company is doing things differently. Unlike traditional space vehicles which use rocket power to blast their way into the sky, Space Perspective plans to lift tourists gently through the atmosphere in ships tethered to hydrogen balloons.
The ride will be so gentle that passengers will be able to enjoy drinks at the bar, though alcohol servings will be limited due to mass constraints.

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"Our core mission is to take people to space to have this mind-blowing experience of seeing Earth in space and connecting deeply with our planet, and then, hopefully, some of them coming back and doing so...