Screw that
Posted on 06/20/2021 7:04:35 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Space tourism startup Space Perspective successfully completed its first unmanned test flight Friday of a gigantic balloon that will soon take humans to the edge of space.
Its Neptune Once spaceship test vehicle took off from the Space Coast Air and Spaceport in Cape Canaveral and hit its planned altitude of 108,409 feet where it hovered for six hours before splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico.
Space Perspective's Spaceship Neptune will host nine people and a mini bar, all of which will be encased in large windows.
The 'cruise' would entail a two-hour ascent into the atmosphere, where it will then hover over the Atlantic Ocean for another two hours.
'I could not be more proud of the performance of the team and the flight system. It was spectacular to witness the teamwork and the high level of expertise yield such a successful result,' said co-CEO and founder MacCallum.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Passengers are given a Darwin Award upon boarding.
What if consumption from the mini-bar causes a need to release bodily fluids.
More Blue Ice
Oh the humanity!
Missing would be the zero-gravity part of the experience.
This would make a great Irwin Allen-style disaster movie.
Would think there is a limited market for this.
Wonder how many times your ears would pop on the way up?
Screw that
There were more than a few times I caught myself thinking, "what the hell am I doing here?"
One of the happiest days of my life was landing safely on my fifth and final jump, and being able to walk off the drop zone.
As would the SIX-g part of the experience (i.e., the blast-off).
Regards,
There's plenty of wealthy, testosterone fueled young men looking for a thrill.
Some people get off on it. I knew a guy in FL that was always trying to get me to jump out of a plane. Prior to him becoming a skydiver, he was a crack head but he was out one night on his bicycle to go get some and someone smashed his face with a baseball bat, leaving him permanently disfigured. I guess that was enough to make him quit smoking crack but he needed a new thrill. Skydiving was it.
Being able to look at such a large part of the world from such a height would be an amazing experience... if there were no clouds.
“For here am I sitting in my tin can
Far above the world
Planet Earth is blue
And there’s nothing I can do”
We did it for the money...(think it was an extra $110 per month back in 1990 when i was on jump status)
I think it looks really cool...
Considering I made no money that summer, thanks to that 6 week mandatory training, I opted to go when I went on active duty. The SGM rode me the entire year, albeit in a friendly way. I took advantage of a military hop to fly back to Spokane, to show him my wings.
While at Fort Benning, several classmates tried to convince me to go to Ranger School. No way, that was a bridge too far for me...I'm not a runner, and I don't do well on an hour of sleep for days at a time.
Even when I was down in the Hahn AB Wing CP for alerts (4 days at a time), I was able to catch 40 winks during the middle of the night. Never caught any flak for that, zoomies were griping about 12 hour shifts.
Wing Commander had my back, too. He wanted me there in case there were any NBC warfare inputs. He lost confidence in his own Disaster Preparedness Officer, who overreacted to an input during a NATO Tac Eval. I stepped in with my recommendation for a lower alert status, and the rest was history.
During my last 18 months at Hahn, when an alert commenced, I'd take my shaving kit and a few sets of (starched) fatigues, prepared to spend the next 3-4 days in the "hole."
Yep, felt the same way when the Ranger recruiters showed up at my AIT and a few other times wanting me to signup especially right after jump school. Nope not a runner either and did not want to play in those Ranger games.
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