The dream, if you can call it that, of ballooning to not-quite-space, has gotten closer. Space Perspective, a company founded with the goal of floating people high in the Earth’s atmosphere in lavish style, announced a successful test run of their Neptune vehicle. The startup launched the hydrogen-fueled craft from Florida’s Marine Spaceport Voyager on September 15, and spent four hours ascending into the stratosphere.
Once there, the company said in a press release , it maintained cabin pressure and stability, before descending for a splashdown. The mission, dubbed Development Flight 2, marked the first time the actual Neptune capsule reached its maximum altitude. A previous test flight also reached the stratosphere but used a lighter mockup of the Neptune capsule.
“This flight successfully demonstrated the extraordinary accessibility of Spaceship Neptune’s spaceflight experience with its gentle ascent, descent and splashdown, a critical step in opening space up to more people than ever before possible,” said Space Perspective founder Jane Poynter in the press release. “Our advances in marine spaceport technology, spacecraft design, and flight safety are setting truly new standards for the future of space exploration.” Despite the constant references to space, Neptune isn’t actually a spacecraft.
During the test flight, Neptune reached a top altitude of about 100,000 feet (30,000 meters)—high enough to see the Earth’s curvature, and over twice as high as .