Richard Branson to co-pilot balloon to stratosphere
Anyone with a spare R2.2 million and a free schedule can join the adventure.
Sir Richard Branson / Wikimedia Commons: Gulltaggen
Anele and The Club on 947 chat with Sir Richard Branson and Taber MacCallum
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Listen below.
Branson is set to fly as a co-pilot on the maiden crewed journey of a luxury stratospheric balloon next year.
The balloon was unveiled by Space Perspective, whose founders MacCallum and Jane Poynter will be joining the exhibition.
Anyone with a spare R2.2 million and a free schedule can join the adventure.
“This experience is different from going to space in a spaceship… we went to space with Virgin Galactic… with this you’re going to be taking off from a large ship with a very, very tall balloon, drifting towards to the top of the earth's atmosphere.”
– Sir Richard Branson
“We’re hoping that the first flights will be from the British Virgin Islands, which is somewhere that I know well… It should be one of those great experiences of life.”
– Sir Richard Branson
Space Perspective is excited to announce that @richardbranson will co-pilot Space Perspective’s first crewed test flight next year, alongside Founder, Jane Poynter and Founder and CTO, Taber MacCallum.
— Space Perspective (@SpacePerspectiv) October 17, 2024
This comes after our historic Development Flight 2 in September, where our… pic.twitter.com/nx0pCA9nkd
As with any flight, expect inflight entertainment, beverages, snacks, and restrooms.
If the trip is successful, the group hopes to do more trips which should bring the price down.
“Imagine that the balloon is like an ice cube at the bottom of a glass of water. That ice cube floats up and sits on top of the water. The balloon takes off from a ship and takes two hours, and floats on top of the earth’s atmosphere… then we slowly drift down and splash back in the water.”
– Taber MacCallum
“It’s this majestic experience of seeing the black sky, the thin blue line of the atmosphere and the curvature of the earth.”
– Taber MacCallum
Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the discussion.