Would You Ride a Balloon to Space?

Author

Garrett Pettit
April 16, 2024

Your Comprehensive Guide to the New Space Economy

G. Pettit here, 

New year, new me. Welcome to the Launchpad Newsletter, the rebranded and revitalized level-up of Frontier Focus! We will be your top source for political, economic, and social developments in the New Space Economy, built by real entrepreneurs shaping it.

Ready-for-launch into the insights of the most impactful industry of the 21st Century!

This Week’s Next-Gen Newsflash

🚀 The U.S Air Force bets big on 3D-printed rockets, granting Relativity Space millions in contracts for additive manufacturing

🛰️ Space debris cleanup inches closer to reality, with Astroscale’s new mission to intercept a rouge rocket booster in Earth orbit

🧑‍🚀 India’s first space tourist is preparing to make history with Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight company Blue Origin

Today’s Subject of Space: Balloon Rides to Space!

Chances are you’ll have the opportunity by the end of the decade, and even better, from multiple international space companies! One of them, Spanish space tourism company HALO Space, has recently unveiled their brand new stratospheric capsule.

Space tourism is a growing field on shaky ground, fraught with ethical and financial risk alike. Historically dominated by a few hyper-niched companies catering to the world’s wealthiest (or luckiest, if you’re fortunate enough to have your ticket sponsored by one of several non-profits), space tourism has gained a reputation for being “billionaire joyrides,” and dangerous ones at that, attracting risk-tolerant buyers to companies like Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin for suborbital rides in their various vehicles.

Chemical rockets are currently the only viable method of even getting close to space, that being the generally accepted border of the Karman Line, and chemical rockets are, as NASA astronaut Don Pettit once described in a TED Talk, “More functionally equivalent to molotov cocktails than any other vehicle we’ve designed.” Not exactly comparable to a cozy cruise in the Mediterranean.

While serving the top of the market has its merits, there are some companies looking to change that status quo. And do it for a fraction of the cost.

Enter: stratospheric balloon companies. This unique batch of adventurous spaceflight pioneers aim to rapidly decrease the cost and risk of accessing space through the use of modified weather balloons. Rather than risk your life on a rocket, you can gently float into the black of space, enjoying cocktails on the journey down.

There aren’t many of them. Spain’s aforementioned HALO Space, Florida’s Space Perspective, and World View are some of the leaders that come to mind, and all of them are making fast progress on breaching barriers that even humanity’s most explosive rockets could never cross.

And here’s the kicker: tickets at Space Perspective go for as low $125,000. No small chunk of change, but compared to the tens of millions required to fly on a traditional rocket, it’s a value that’s hard to beat.

State of the New Space Economy

  • The number of international companies literally shooting for the Moon has risen drastically, with 87 known companies commercializing lunar architecture, resource extraction, and communications.

  • American cultural and financial interest in space reflects in corporate acquisitions, with 50% of space company exits performed by US companies.

  • 2023 brought multiple high-profile market exits of promising space companies, and 2024 will likely stick the trend as high interest rates and reluctant investors squeeze the cost of capital required to compete.

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