EOS-X Space announces upcoming balloon flights to the edge of space

Fare-paying passengers could be blasting off to the far reaches of the stratosphere as early as next year, but not with the airline you might think. Spanish company EOS-X Space has announced that it is close to finalizing a seven-passenger capsule that will be lifted into the sky by a giant balloon.

When most people think of space balloon flights (if they do), they think of the Florida-based company Space Perspective.

Since 2020, it has been developing a pressurized “Spaceship Neptune” capsule that will take batches of eight paying passengers (and a pilot) on six-hour flights up to an altitude of 100,000 feet (30,480 m).

At this height, the curvature of the Earth and the blackness of space are clearly visible. The capsule will be suspended under a “SpaceBalloon” filled with hydrogen, which will gradually release the gas in order to descend.

Well, Space Perspective is not the only player in this game.

The Sevillian company EOS-X Space has announced that it is currently finalizing the development of its own capsule, the EOS-X, which is expected to begin commercial flights from the bases of Seville and Abu Dhabi in the third quarter of the year next.

While the Neptune spacecraft will use hydrogen in its balloon, the EOS-X is planned to use helium.

The pressurized carbon fiber capsule would carry seven passengers and a pilot to an altitude of about 40,000 m (131,234 feet), suspended beneath a helium-filled stratospheric balloon. It will launch from base at dawn, taking two hours to ascend, two hours to cruise aloft and an additional hour to descend and land.

As is the case with Spaceship Neptune, the EOS-X will feature ergonomic seats, panoramic windows, ambient lighting, an onboard bar and toilets. Passengers will have to pay between €150.00 and €200.00 (approximately $160,550 to $214,060) for this experience, compared to $125,000 for a Spaceship Neptune flight.

Each passenger will have a screen at their seat, displaying information about the flight

EOS-X Space hopes to offer even more to particularly wealthy customers, with a SpaceHub complex planned on La Isla de la Cartuja (an island on the Guadalquivir River in Seville). There, passengers will stay for a few days in a luxury hotel while participating in activities such as zero-gravity airplane flights and VR space mission simulations, before traveling to the launch base by helicopter.

The company specifies that validation tests of the capsule “will take place soon”, in collaboration with the Spanish National Institute of Aerospace Technology.

You can see a brief overview of what a flight will entail in the following video clip.

A FLIGHT TO NEAR SPACE | EOS-X SPACE

Source: EOS-X Space