See with your own eyes that the Earth is very round. This dream, some have cherished it for a lifetime. And if they wait a few more years, they may be able to achieve it by putting some money aside. Without being obliged to pay millions of euros to climb in a shuttle like those developed by Elon Musk, Richard Branson or Jeff Bezos and which will offer space tourism on board the international space station or during suborbital flights.
Without aiming for space and its 100 km above the ground, several companies have launched stratospheric flights in recent years, thanks to balloons that can reach an altitude of around 35 km and are much less polluting than space shuttles. . Whether it’s the Madrid start-up Halo Spacewhich has just announced its first test flight for the end of the year in India, Space Perspective in Florida or World View in Arizona, all offer an unprecedented journey in a pressurized capsule with a 360 view of the blue planet. °.
And French companies have decided not to stay on the quay. Two of them, located in the Toulouse conurbation, have decided to join the fray: Zephalto and stratoflight.
The latter, founded by Denier Autier and Arnaud Longobardi, has teamed up with the engineering group Expleo to develop a somewhat special capsule. Depressurized, it will have a balcony where tourists can “walk around”.
“The extra-vehicular output side is the extra experience. We will put the passengers in a situation of being astronauts, subject to gravity, but in a pressurized suit. The only filter will be the visor of the helmet,” explains Benoit Courouble from Expleo, whose team is in charge of designing the capsule. It will be towed by a balloon 120 meters in diameter by 120 meters high using carbon-free hydrogen. Four passengers and two pilots will board for this somewhat special trip lasting just under six hours.
Descent like a paraglider
“There is a triple experience for the traveler. The first is the ascent under a balloon, which is similar to a hot air balloon flight. The second will be an outing lasting 15 to 20 minutes per passenger. The third will be after a descent of the balloon to 8,000 meters, the release of the shuttle and the opening of a stealthy and very manageable sail, hybrid between a parachute and a paraglider. We have controllability and landing precision, all helped by navigation systems that are lighter than those of an airliner. The pilots will fly visually but aided by these instruments,” explains Arnaud Longobardi, who is also a pilot in life and practices wingsuit-type extreme sports.
The Stratoflight start-up is based in Labège, not far from CNES, which has mastered stratospheric balloon technology for years. The objective is to use all existing know-how and adapt it to this stratospheric flight. If no grain of sand comes to seize up this somewhat crazy project, in 2025, a test prototype will be developed and certified the same year. Before the first flight with passengers on board within four years.
Two bases and four term shuttles
For the time being, the marketing of places, the price of which could be around 300,000 euros, has not yet started “but people are already interested”, indicates Arnaud Longobardi. An adventure that is aimed at private passengers, but also at scientists who could carry out experiments. “And from time to time, we would like to allow a passenger who cannot afford it to come with a personal project”, continues Arnaud Longobardi. Ultimately, Stratoflight plans to have four shuttles on two different bases, including one in France, hope its founders. Each shuttle would take off every three to four days, depending in particular on the weather conditions. And at the controls will be pilots with the certificate with instrument flight capability, but also paragliding and parachuting capabilities.
The lucky ones who can afford the trip will have to train beforehand in wearing the astronaut suit, but also in the various procedures, in particular the spacewalk. No age limit is set, but claustrophobics have every interest in abstaining.