The Spaceship Neptune space balloon is seen in this rendering from Space Perspective, which looks to make its first flight with customers in late 2024 from Brevard County.
A commercial spaceflight company that plans to fly a massive balloon from the Space Coast will let you pay with cryptocurrency.
Space Perspective, which aims to fly its first passengers on board its space balloon from the old Kennedy Space Center shuttle landing facility by late 2024 announced it is accepting Bitcoin, Ethereum and several other cryptocurrencies for deposits on the future flights.
The full price for the flights is $125,000, but deposits starting at $1,000 per person can be made with transactions that will go through coinbase.com.
“Space Perspective is revolutionizing space tourism, and that includes offering our customers the ability to reserve their once-in-a-lifetime journeys to space via crypto,” said company cofounder and co-CEO Taber MacCallum in a press release. “The flexibility to pay with crypto is another opportunity for us to differentiate the Space Perspective experience, and we are proud to lead the industry by accepting Coinbase.”
The company stated more than 500 tickets have been booked to date, so future bookings would be for later in 2025 and beyond.
In a second announcement, the company said it was partnering with nonprofit Cool Effect to offset its carbon footprint from flight operations, noting a third party would calculate the company’s carbon usage each year.
“Every aspect of a Space Perspective flight is radically gentle, and that includes our impact on the environment. Spaceship Neptune is the only carbon neutral, zero-emission way to space, and our partnership with Cool Effect will allow us to offset the operations of our carbon footprint each year while contributing to a cleaner planet tomorrow,” said the company’s other cofounder and co-CEO Jane Poynter.
The company already sent up a successful test flight in June 2021 with an unmanned balloon that hit an altitude of 108,409 feet crossing Florida from the east to the west and splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico during a six-hour, 39-minute flight. The company plans a crewed test flight in 2023.
Unlike the shorter, much more expensive, but higher altitude flights of Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, the space balloon takes a different approach, offering a six-hour flight, with a two-hour ascent to 20 miles altitude, followed by two hours of floating above Earth before a two-hour descent. Flights are subject to approval by the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Spaceflight.
The 650-foot-tall balloon, called Spaceship Neptune, can carry up to eight guests along with the pilot in a capsule that includes a bar and bathroom. It will offer 360-degree views and reclining seats.
The company aims to pilot 25 flights in its first year of operation, flying from locations around the world, but with initial operations from Brevard County.
The company also announced it was basing its campus and manufacturing complex on the Space Coast, a $38 million investment that projects the creation of 240 full-time permanent jobs in Brevard County by the end of 2026.
The campus and balloon manufacturing facility will be at the Space Coast Airport and Spaceport in Titusville, the updated name of Space Coast Regional Airport in Titusville after it was awarded spaceport status in 2020 by the Federal Aviation Administration. Central to Space Perspective’s plans are the construction of a $9 million, 120,000 square foot manufacturing building.
