2015 seems ambitious. Needless to say the ride up is safe, but mind you there is a glider structure carrying 6 passengers, in other words an "untested aircraft". Aircraft development takes time and lots of $$$ in testing. Building this and getting the proper approval is no easy feat. Not only that there is only one agency in the world that also has built a massive glider to decent from the space and/or edge of space...
Long story short, 75K x 6 makes 450k a pop, say it goes up monthly in its inception, that makes ~ $5.5M. Felix Baumgartners jump reportedly cost around $20-30M. Granted it was higher, and the design needed a space suit and a capsule along with the a massive team. Regardless, this will require a capsule and a solid team, not to mention a more complex capsule design that can soar down and land in 1 piece.
I don't want to poop on the cake but 1 accident also everyone gets to watch Jimi Hendrix play in the garden of eden till eternity, which also spells the end of the company and idea. So 2015 extremely ambitious, Highly doubtful unless they have some some nutty billionaire willing to throw in 50M to see what happens.
previously they were flying mig-25 & 31 and these planes can go higher, especially mig-25, yet they are older and seems to be more harder(expensive) to maintain.
I wonder what is the marginal cost of each launch here. I might be missing something, but it looks like something that could cost much much less, if there will be enough demand to drive competition.
Yes, but that boundary is rather arbitrary. Humans require a pressure suit above the Armstrong Limit at around 19,000 metres, so by a more meaningful definition of space as "a place where you need a space suit", this trip qualifies.
I suspect Virgin Galactic will do better, even at over double this cost. Virgin is going to give the feel of a rocket launch, like everyone has been watching on TV since they were kids. Also, weightlessness.
Thinking about space debris: What happens to the balloon afterwards? Will it remain in orbit or sink down to earth? Could the balloons cause problems for other aircrafts later on?
30km is not space (official boundary is at 100km). Also the balloon is not in orbit, so even if they it could go much much higher, the debris would fall straight down.
Space debris come from spacecraft that are in orbit, and therefore remain in orbit for quite some time. That´s why they are dangerous.
I wonder if it would be possible to use a compressor with a balloon to pump air back out of the balloon into a cylinder... this would allow you to lose altitude without sacrificing (much) Helium.
Going as far back as the 1930s, when it was restricted because of its scarcity and use in naval airships. For example, the United States refused to sell helium to Nazi Germany -- which is why the airship Hindenburg was filled with hydrogen.
No. In the big picture you're barely leaving the surface. 30km off a spheroid of radius ~6000km means gravity is essentially what it is at the surface.
Long story short, 75K x 6 makes 450k a pop, say it goes up monthly in its inception, that makes ~ $5.5M. Felix Baumgartners jump reportedly cost around $20-30M. Granted it was higher, and the design needed a space suit and a capsule along with the a massive team. Regardless, this will require a capsule and a solid team, not to mention a more complex capsule design that can soar down and land in 1 piece.
I don't want to poop on the cake but 1 accident also everyone gets to watch Jimi Hendrix play in the garden of eden till eternity, which also spells the end of the company and idea. So 2015 extremely ambitious, Highly doubtful unless they have some some nutty billionaire willing to throw in 50M to see what happens.