Spanish high altitude tourist balloon company prepares for first test flight
The Spanish high altitude tourist balloon company HALO is preparing to do the first test flight in December from India, with the second test flight planned for the first quarter of 2023 from Spain.
The Madrid-based company will take tourists to the edge of space in a capsule attached to a balloon – with prices from £87,000 to £174,000 (100,000 to 200,000 Euros).
The final capsule design will have capacity for 8 passengers and a pilot and feature panoramic windows which allow 360-degree views of the Earth at an altitude of up to 25 miles.
…The first commercial flights are expected to start in 2025 and the company plans to operate in four continents, making a total of 400 commercial trips with 3,000 passengers per year from 2029.
This market now appears to have three companies vying for customers, the American companies World View and Space Perspectives, and this Spanish company.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. The ebook can also be purchased direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from me (hardback $24.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $5.00). Just email me at zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
The Spanish high altitude tourist balloon company HALO is preparing to do the first test flight in December from India, with the second test flight planned for the first quarter of 2023 from Spain.
The Madrid-based company will take tourists to the edge of space in a capsule attached to a balloon – with prices from £87,000 to £174,000 (100,000 to 200,000 Euros).
The final capsule design will have capacity for 8 passengers and a pilot and feature panoramic windows which allow 360-degree views of the Earth at an altitude of up to 25 miles.
…The first commercial flights are expected to start in 2025 and the company plans to operate in four continents, making a total of 400 commercial trips with 3,000 passengers per year from 2029.
This market now appears to have three companies vying for customers, the American companies World View and Space Perspectives, and this Spanish company.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. The ebook can also be purchased direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from me (hardback $24.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $5.00). Just email me at zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
How it was done in the olde days:
“Lawnchair Larry flight
On July 2, 1982, Larry Walters (April 19, 1949 – October 6, 1993) made a 45-minute flight in a homemade airship made of an ordinary patio chair and 45 helium-filled weather balloons. The aircraft rose to an altitude of about 16,000 feet (4,900 m), drifted from the point of liftoff in San Pedro, California, and entered controlled airspace near Long Beach Airport. During the landing, the aircraft became entangled in power lines, but Walters was able to climb down safely.
Walters attached 43 of the balloons to his lawn chair, filled them with helium, put on a parachute, and strapped himself into the chair in the backyard of a home at 1633 West 7th Street in San Pedro. He took his pellet gun (to shoot the balloons to descend), a CB radio, sandwiches, beer, and a camera.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawnchair_Larry_flight
16,000 feet! Surprised he didn’t suffer hypoxia. Don’t pilots have to use supplemental oxygen above 10,000 feet in unpressurized aircraft? Also, it’s pretty cold at that altitude.
16,000 ft is fine Everest is almost 30 thousand feet and they really only use O2 above 20,000.
The death zone is over 26 thousand feet but depending on your health and physical activity 12 thousand feet could be your limit.
Look at those people who need supplemental O2 just walking the mall.